I’ve spent **THOUSANDS of hours** experimenting on my own vault to implement countless learning and productivity practices. And thanks to it, **I’ve been able to follow my passions and explore my curiosities.** But it wasn’t always like this. ‍ Prior to having my second brain, I was a 17 year old that felt overwhelmed by all the responsibilities and information when transitioning into adult life. **I was uncertain about who I was and what I wanted to do in the future.** To cope from the stress and uncertainty, I distracted myself by playing games for up to 16 hours a day with no direction in life. Sure I finished my assignments on time and got good grades, but it wasn't coming from a place of purpose or passion. **My information organization techniques became a source of overwhelming frustration, hindering rather than aiding my progress.** My binder for school notes was a mess I would never revisit. I couldn't find information when I needed it most in my unstructured Google documents. Crucial takeaways and insights from content I consumed were eventually forgotten, resulting in shallow learning—I was starting at square one every time, with no foundation to compound my knowledge. But slowly, my second brain became my digital sanctuary for **cultivating my ideal life.** As I learned from my own experimentations, comments on my videos, and customers, I forged systems and workflows to turn my uncertainty and chaos into clarity. And now, ever-evolving galaxy of knowledge and experiences will continue to grow and serve me for my lifetime. No matter the new challenge or goal, I found a way for Obsidian to turn the overwhelming amount of information online into a playground for exploring my diverse endeavors. **Within my first two years of use I've used it to:** - Self-learn web development to land my first coding internship within my first year of university and another one at a Global 500 company, years before my peers - Achieve a 4.07 GPA in my first semester of university across different subjects despite worrying and studying less than my classmates - Create content and systems to grow my YouTube channel to 9k subscribers and share my learnings in a weekly newsletter - Compound my ideas and discover unique insights by making connected notes on over 50 books and countless resources, implementing them into my life to escape "tutorial hell" - Understand my emotions and grow my collection of stories through my daily and periodic journaling habits - Feel purposeful by aligning my everyday tasks -> weekly projects -> monthly/quarterly goals -> yearly vision -> personal values during my periodic reviews - Learn countless skills like Obsidian, building an online brand, and creating digital products to share my second brain system with others who want to set up similar systems ;) From my personal to professional life, it's been the foundation for accelerating my learning and growth. But of course, this is my own personal story, and you have your own reasons for being interested in mastering Obsidian. If you want to learn how to start building your own second brain, you can check out my beginner's guide to using Obsidian [here](https://free.johnmavrick.com/obsidian-templates)