Get It Out of Your Head
One of the biggest mistakes we make as human beings is relying too much on our memory. Seriously, how many times have you thought about doing or looking into something and 15 minutes later you struggle to remember what it was? How about those times you figured out a solution to a problem and never wrote it down. Then nine months later, you encounter the same problem and can’t recall how you solved it.
I can tell you with a straight face that this only gets worse with age. So do yourself a favour and get things out of your head and into something else. It truly matters not what that is, but it is more practical when the collection point you choose to put those ideas into can travel with you wherever you go. I have a good friend who likes the old-fashioned collection point – a leatherbound notebook. He lists things on a page, checks them off as they get processed or done. When the page is full, he copies the things yet to do onto a new page. The act of writing it again has a psychological and motivational effect.
My solution of choice is more digital and cloud based. I live mostly in the Google ecosystem, so I make use of the Keep app which I can access both in my web browser and my mobile phone. I add cards for different ideas or categories. One card is a grocery list. One is points I want to bring up at work meetings and action items given to me. One card is a list of where to get the best [insert good thing to eat here]. One is my wish list. One is my major purchases list with dates and prices. You’d be surprised at how you often think you’ve owned something for five years and you’ve actually owned it for ten. Every card in Keep acts like auxiliary memory for my unreliable brain.
Use this method to store ideas, tasks, anything you’ve been keeping in your brain. Because it’s just not that great.
Karl Plesz
Your Productivity Guru
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