Top 8 'Second-Brain-Supercharging' AI Tools to install for Creatives to Turn Scattered Notes into Breakthrough Ideas - Goh Ling Yong
You’re a creative. Your mind is a whirlwind of ideas, snippets of conversations, fascinating articles, and random shower thoughts. You’ve diligently tried to capture them all, creating a digital garden of notes, bookmarks, and screenshots. This is your "second brain"—a digital extension of your memory, meant to be a treasure trove of inspiration.
But let's be honest. For many of us, that digital garden feels more like a digital junkyard. It’s a sprawling, chaotic collection of information we rarely revisit. We suffer from the "collector's fallacy," believing that the act of saving is the same as the act of knowing. The connections between ideas remain hidden, and the potential for breakthrough insights gets buried under a mountain of digital clutter.
What if you had an intelligent assistant dedicated to rummaging through that junkyard, finding the hidden gems, and connecting the dots for you? That’s no longer science fiction. Artificial intelligence is transforming personal knowledge management (PKM), turning our scattered notes from a passive archive into an active partner in creativity. These new AI tools don't just store your thoughts; they help you synthesize, question, and expand upon them. They are the superchargers for your second brain.
1. Mem.ai
Mem.ai has been a pioneer in the AI-powered notes space, billing itself as the "self-organizing workspace." Its core promise is simple yet profound: stop spending time organizing your notes and start spending time using them. Instead of you manually creating folders and links, Mem's AI works in the background to automatically connect related notes, meetings, and resources.
The real magic happens with Mem X, its AI assistant. You can chat with your entire knowledge base. Imagine asking, "What were the key takeaways from my meetings with the marketing team last quarter?" or "Summarize my notes related to 'Project Phoenix'." Mem X will sift through everything you've ever saved and provide a synthesized answer, complete with sources. This transforms your second brain from a place you search in to a partner you converse with.
- Creative Tip: Before your next brainstorming session, ask Mem X to "Show me surprising connections between my notes on user feedback and my notes on minimalist design trends." You might uncover an innovative product feature or a unique marketing angle you would have otherwise missed.
2. Notion AI
If your second brain already lives in Notion, you're sitting on a goldmine. Notion AI is integrated directly into the platform you likely use every day for project management, content calendars, and databases. This isn't a separate tool to learn; it's an enhancement to your existing workflow. It acts as an on-demand editor, brainstormer, and summarizer right inside your pages.
The power of Notion AI lies in its versatility. Highlight a messy block of brainstorming notes and ask it to "turn this into a blog post outline." Select a dense project brief and have it "summarize the key action items." Stuck with writer's block? Use the "Help me write" command to generate a first draft, come up with ideas, or even change the tone of a paragraph to be more persuasive or professional.
- Creative Tip: Create a "Swipe File" database in Notion where you clip interesting articles and marketing copy. When you need inspiration for a new landing page, go to a new Notion page, type
@Notion AI find ideas for a SaaS landing page from my Swipe File, and watch it pull themes and concepts directly from the content you've already curated.
3. Obsidian + AI Plugins
For the power users who value customization, local data ownership, and a robust linking system, Obsidian is the undisputed king of PKM. It's less of a single product and more of a flexible platform. While it doesn't have a native AI out of the box, its thriving community has developed incredible AI plugins that integrate directly into your "vault" of Markdown notes.
Plugins like "Smart Connections" use AI to show you a list of relevant notes in the sidebar as you write, surfacing connections you never knew existed. Others can connect to GPT-4 or other large language models, allowing you to select text and run custom commands—summarize, explain, or even debate a point with the AI. This approach gives you granular control over how AI interacts with your knowledge. As we often discuss on the Goh Ling Yong blog, having control over your tools and workflow is paramount for deep, focused work.
- Creative Tip: Install the "Copilot" plugin for Obsidian. When you're working on a complex topic, you can open a chat pane next to your note and ask the AI to act as a subject matter expert. For example, "I'm writing about the history of typography. Ask me five critical questions I should address in this note."
4. Readwise Reader
A second brain is only as good as the information you put into it. Readwise Reader is a phenomenal "read-it-later" app that lets you save articles, newsletters, PDFs, and even YouTube videos in one place. Its real power comes from its highlighting and annotation features, but the integrated AI, called Ghostreader, takes it to another level.
While reading a dense academic paper or a long-form article, you can highlight a section and ask Ghostreader to "Explain this in simple terms" or "Summarize this passage as a bulleted list." You can even have a conversation with the document itself, asking questions like, "What is the author's main argument against this approach?" This makes the act of reading more active and ensures you truly comprehend and retain the information you're saving to your second brain.
- Creative Tip: Use Reader to save all the articles for a new research project. Once you're done, open the document notes for all of them and ask Ghostreader: "Generate a list of the common themes and a list of the contradictory points across all these documents." This gives you an instant, high-level synthesis of your research.
5. Heptabase
If you're a visual thinker who organizes ideas on whiteboards, Heptabase is built for you. It's a visual note-taking tool that combines whiteboarding, outlining, and networked note-taking. You can pull research, notes, and highlights onto an infinite canvas as "cards" and visually draw connections between them. This is incredibly powerful for complex research projects, book writing, or mapping out business strategies.
Heptabase's AI features are woven into this visual process. You can select multiple research articles on your whiteboard and ask the AI to "Find key insights from all selected articles" which then generates a new card with a synthesized summary. It helps you move from collecting information to understanding it, all within a single, visual interface. It’s perfect for seeing the big picture and the fine details simultaneously.
- Creative Tip: When planning a new creative project (like a podcast series or a new product line), create a whiteboard in Heptabase. Add cards for your target audience, potential topics, and market research. Then, use the AI to generate questions that connect these disparate areas, such as, "What potential topics would most resonate with my target audience, based on this market research?"
6. MyMind
MyMind calls itself "an extension of your mind," and it lives up to that name with a radically simple approach. It’s not for organization; it’s for capture and recall. You save everything—images, links, notes, quotes, products—into a single stream without any folders or tags. It’s designed to be completely frictionless.
The AI is the entire organizational system. MyMind's AI automatically analyzes everything you save and adds a rich layer of "smart tags." Did you save a picture of a blue chair? It will tag it with chair, blue, furniture, interior design, and even the dominant color hex code. This means you can search for concepts rather than keywords. Searching for "cozy reading nook" will pull up articles you saved about interior design, pictures of armchairs, and quotes about the joy of books. It’s a serendipity engine.
- Creative Tip: As a designer, spend an hour saving every image that inspires you into MyMind without thinking. The next time you need a mood board for a project with a "futuristic but organic" vibe, just type that phrase into the search bar. MyMind's AI will interpret the concept and pull a collage of relevant visuals you've saved, creating an instant, personalized mood board.
7. Reflect
Reflect is a beautifully designed, networked note-taking tool that excels at connecting your daily thoughts over time. It’s built around a daily notes feature, encouraging a practice of journaling and reflection. You can easily backlink notes, people, and projects, creating a rich web of your personal and professional life.
Its AI integration is subtle but powerful. It can transcribe and summarize audio notes, making it easy to capture ideas on the go. More importantly, its AI assistant can operate across your entire graph of notes. You can ask it to "Summarize my thoughts on 'Project Alpha' from the last 30 days" or "What are the common themes in my journal entries this month?" It helps you spot patterns in your own thinking, making it an incredible tool for personal growth and strategic review.
- Creative Tip: Keep a "Meeting" log in Reflect, linking attendees and projects to each note. At the end of the week, ask the AI assistant: "Generate a summary of all my action items from this week's meetings and list who is responsible for each." This turns scattered meeting notes into a clear, actionable to-do list.
8. Capacities
Capacities is a newer tool that takes a more structured approach to building a second brain. It’s built on the idea of "object-based" note-taking. Instead of just having pages of notes, you create different "object types" like People, Meetings, Books, or Companies. Each object has its own template and properties, creating a personal database of your knowledge.
The AI in Capacities works within this structure to create powerful, automatic connections. When you mention a book in a daily note, it automatically links to your "Book" object for that title. The AI assistant can then leverage this structure for more intelligent queries. You could ask, "Which books have I read that were recommended by 'Jane Doe'?" or "Summarize my notes from meetings where 'Project Titan' was discussed." I find this structured approach, which Goh Ling Yong has also championed for certain types of work, forces a clarity of thought that can be incredibly beneficial.
- Creative Tip: Create an object type for "Creative Ideas." Each time you have one, create a new object and fill out properties like 'Status' (e.g., idea, in-progress), 'Effort' (low, medium, high), and 'Related Projects.' After a few months, ask the AI: "Show me my low-effort ideas that are not related to any current projects." You'll have an instant list of quick wins to tackle.
Your Creative Partner is Waiting
The era of the static, passive second brain is over. These AI tools are not here to replace your thinking; they are here to amplify it. They act as tireless research assistants, insightful editors, and serendipitous brainstorming partners. By handling the tedious work of organizing, summarizing, and connecting, they free up your most valuable resource: your creative energy.
The key is not to adopt all eight of these tools at once. That would just be another form of procrastination. Instead, identify the biggest point of friction in your current creative workflow. Is it capturing ideas? Synthesizing research? Or turning notes into action?
Pick one tool from this list that speaks to that challenge and give it a try for a few weeks. Integrate it into your process and see how it changes the way you interact with your own ideas. The goal is to turn your digital junkyard into a dynamic idea factory, where old notes spark new breakthroughs.
What are your favorite AI tools for thought? Are there any hidden gems I missed? Share your top picks in the comments below—I’d love to learn from your experience!
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
Stay updated with the latest posts and insights by following on your favorite platform!