How Building a Second Brain Helped Me Survive PhD and Balance Life

4 minute read

We all know the pressure—whether you’re into research, serious about your studies, aiming to grow in your career, or scaling a business. Across all these areas, five things are painfully common:

You have to read a lot
You need to remember even more
You must solve hard problems
You’re forced to write even if you don’t want to
And yes, you’ve got to make tons of presentations

Now, all of this starts with one thing: the need to keep learning continuously.

But have we ever paused to ask—how can we make this learning process actually work? How can we read, solve problems, and still remember them in a way that prevents us from doing the same thing over and over again?

Let me start with my own story.

📖 My PhD Struggle Story

In June 2021, I started my PhD. Like many others, I struggled in the beginning—balancing research, coursework, writing papers, and trying to live a decent life. It felt overwhelming.

Eventually, I hit a wall. I couldn’t go on like that. So I started reading—a lot—about productivity, note-taking, learning techniques, and how to optimize my work. I didn’t just read. I applied. Slowly but surely, things started to come together.

Now, life is more balanced. I work while I work, relax when I’m home, sleep 8 hours a night, and even try to get some walking in.

That struggle I went through? I know I wasn’t alone. That’s why I created a YouTube series called

🧠 What is a Second Brain?

A “second brain” is just a system where everything you learn is stored in one place—as short, linked notes.

When you regularly connect new notes to your old ones, your learning becomes easier, more organized, and—most importantly—memorable.

Because you’re not trying to juggle everything in your head, your mind becomes clearer and calmer. You’re not overwhelmed by 10 different thoughts. You can focus on one thing at a time.

When it’s time to write something new, you just piece together your old notes. When making slides, reuse previous ones. When solving tough problems, connect relevant notes and make sense of it all. When you finish reading a paper, auto-generate structured notes—and later use them to write your own papers.

This system of note-taking, organizing, and connecting ideas is what we call a Second Brain.

🎬 About the Build_Your_Second_Brain Video Series

The series has 10 videos in total. Here’s the fun fact: since 1986, human attention span has dropped 5x. People are more distracted than ever.

So, except for the first one, every video in the series is under 5 minutes. You can finish the whole thing in about 1 hour.

But if you watch and practice along, I’m confident it will transform the way you think. You’ll:

Study, research, and solve problems far more efficiently
Understand how to live a balanced, productive life
Make your learning process long-lasting and effective
Remember more with less effort
Have ready access to your knowledge while writing or solving problems

👥 Who is This Series For?

This isn’t for everyone. It’s for those who:

Want to be serious (or are already serious) about personal growth
Want to excel in academics
Want to become better at research, writing, career, or even business

Inside, I cover how to take effective notes, use the right tools, apply techniques that help you remember more without memorizing everything.

📌 Final Thoughts

Here is the link of the video series.

If you’ve already watched it, please share your feedback. Got questions? Drop them in the comments. I’m also starting a new follow-up series this week — a step-by-step guide to actually build your Second Brain.

Oh, and don’t forget to subscribe. I made this series while juggling my research, coursework, and two meetings every week. Editing videos felt endless—and this was my first time doing something like this. I’ve put in serious time and effort.

If this helps even one of you—it’ll all be worth it.

People in my lab now use this system too. Watching them benefit gives me real peace. If you feel it’s not for you, but could help someone you know—please share it.

That’s all I ask.

👋 About Me

Hi, I’m Shuvangkar Das, a power systems researcher with a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Clarkson University. I work at the intersection of power electronics, DER, IBR, and AI — building greener, smarter, and more stable grids. Currently, I’m a Research Engineer at EPRI (though everything I share here reflects my personal experience, not my employer’s views).

Over the years, I’ve worked on real-world projects involving large scale EMT simulation and firmware development for grid-forming and grid following inverter and reinforcement learning (RL). I also publish technical content and share hands-on insights with the goal of making complex ideas accessible to engineers and researchers.

📺 Subscribe to my YouTube channel, where I share tutorials, code walk-throughs, and research productivity tips.

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