# Slow Burn Method The Slow Burn is an approach to creative projects described by [[Tiago Forte]] in Building a Second Brain (cfr [[Building a Second Brain method (BASB)]]). While a project is open, everything you capture that relates to it goes to that project: a highlight, a quote, a passing thought, a link. Over weeks or months, the project collects a pile of material. When you finally sit down to do the work, you start from that pile instead of a blank page. Tiago contrasts it with the Heavy Lift, where you sit down and try to research, think and produce everything from scratch in one go. That depends on long blocks of free time and a lot of willpower. The Slow Burn spreads the work over the time you already spend reading and listening. ## Divergence first, convergence later A creative project has two phases. In the divergent phase, you open up and collect options (cfr [[Divergent thinking]]). In the convergent phase, you narrow down, make choices and ship (cfr [[Convergent thinking]]). The Slow Burn stretches divergence over the whole life of the project, at almost no extra cost. Convergence then goes fast, because most of the raw material is already there. [[Eliott Meunier]] builds his [[IPCRA Method]] around this idea. He files each note in its project or cap as soon as he takes it, so every "idle" moment (an article, a podcast, a walk in the forest) becomes divergence time for one or several projects. According to him, that's how you can move dozens of projects forward at the same time without mental overload. ## What it needs First, clarity about your projects. You can't route a capture to a project you haven't defined. As I explain in [[Knowledge Management for Beginners]], [[Mindless consumption is just procrastination in disguise|mindless consumption is just procrastination in disguise]]. With a short list of active projects in mind, the same reading feeds real work. Second, capture. The pile only grows if you write things down when they come up (cfr [[The Capture Habit]] and [[How to capture your thoughts and ideas]]), and if those captures end up in a place you trust (cfr [[You need a capture system]], [[What a capture system looks like]] and [[Idea capture system]]). Third, use. If you never open the notes you collected for a project, you're just hoarding (cfr [[Collector's fallacy]]). The Slow Burn shortens the path from Capture to Create in the [[Personal Knowledge Management Process]]. You still have to do the work in between. Fourth, time. An urgent deliverable leaves nothing to burn slowly, and a Heavy Lift may be the only option. ## Slow Burn in the Obsidian Starter Kit Tiago (with the [[PARA method]]) and Eliott both implement the Slow Burn by moving notes into project folders. I don't. In the [[Obsidian Starter Kit]], each note has one home, determined by its type (cfr [[One home per note]] and [[Organize information by type, not by topic]]). Literature notes stay with literature notes, permanent notes with permanent notes, ideas with ideas. Each project has its own project note, and a capture feeds a project through a link to that project note. In practice, my captures first land in my daily note (cfr [[Why use daily notes as your capture system]]). During the weekly review, the [[Knowledge Ingestion Process]] turns them into typed notes and links them to the projects they serve. The project note gathers that material. Its backlinks list every note that references it, and the ideas linked to the project show up in its Ideas section (cfr [[Obsidian Starter Kit - System - Action System]]). When the work starts, I get the same pile of material, with two differences that matter to me: - A note can feed several projects at once. A folder forces you to pick one - When a project ends, its notes stay where they are. The project note gets archived, the knowledge remains available for the next project, and the links still record which project it served A [[Project context note]] goes one step further: it summarizes that material for you, or for an AI, at the start of a work session. ## References - Tiago Forte, Building a Second Brain (2022): Slow Burn vs Heavy Lift, divergence and convergence (see [[Building a Second Brain (book)]]) - Eliott Meunier, Atomic Notes email series, emails 2 and 3 (2024): slow burn as the reason to file notes by project and by cap - Knowledge Management for Beginners, Module 06, lesson 05 "Why you need a capture system" ## Related - [[IPCRA Method]] - [[Building a Second Brain method (BASB)]] - [[PARA method]] - [[Divergent thinking]] - [[Convergent thinking]] - [[The Capture Habit]] - [[You need a capture system]] - [[What a capture system looks like]] - [[Idea capture system]] - [[Collector's fallacy]] - [[Personal Knowledge Management Process]] - [[One home per note]] - [[Organize information by type, not by topic]] - [[Project context note]] - [[Combining PKM methods into a system]] - [[Why use daily notes as your capture system]] - [[How to capture your thoughts and ideas]] - [[Knowledge Ingestion Process]] - [[Obsidian Starter Kit - Theory]] - [[Obsidian Starter Kit - System - Action System]]