The journey so far.
From a system lived in for four years to an app in daily use, in the order it happened.
01Before the code
Mid 2022 – May 2026- A system, lived in daily
A personal system for journal, habits, plans, money and reading, used every day for four years.
- Designed on paper first
A month of design before any code: every screen drawn, every piece of data planned.
02Building it
June – August 2026- The first line of code
Built desktop-first and offline-first: everything you write and track works with no internet and no account. Only book search, live prices and sign-in need a connection.
- Every part working
Journal, habits, schedule, projects, notes, reading, finances and life areas, all running on real data.
- Finances grows up
Accounts, budgets, recurring bills, monthly analytics and investments with live prices, in one place.
- Bring your bank statement
Import a statement and every line lands in the right budget, learning from your corrections.
- Polish
One design language across every screen, holding up from a small window to a large monitor.
- A name and a mark
Second Brain gets its name, the Open Mind logo and a first home at secondbrainapp.co.
03Making it solid
September 2026- Its own server, in Europe
Sync runs on a setup in Europe owned by the project, and each person reaches only their own data.
- Money, exact to the cent
Every amount stored exactly, in any currency, with the exchange rate kept from the day you paid.
- Security, checked twice
Two full reviews: crash reports stripped of personal details and sign-in moved to encrypted storage.
- The first real build
A real installable app for Windows that opens to the dashboard in about a second.
04Living in it
October 2026- In daily use
The app now runs its maker's real days, which is the toughest test there is.
- The first walk-through by hand
A full afternoon using every screen by hand; the fixes it found are being made now.
- The website is done
The site at secondbrainapp.co is finished and live. It has the contact form, the newsletter, the Questions and Security pages, the legal pages and the themes. The app itself opens on 1 March 2027.
05What comes next
Late 2026 – March 2027- Finishing the app
With the website done, the last of the work goes into the app itself.
- A small private test
A handful of people try it first, before it opens to anyone else.
- Public release
Second Brain opens to everyone on 1 March 2027, if it is ready by then.