Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich from Pexels
Memories are the infrastructure to understanding.
They hold our thoughts, experiences, and give us that sense of Deja Vu if we’re in a similar circumstance as one we’ve been in before.
We go through several experiences every day.
The taste of your coffee — seems a little different than yesterday so maybe I should add more creamer.
To the texture of a rock you pick up, throwing to the wayside of your driveway.
Our brain is like a filing cabinet.
Each of us have stored everything we’ve been through, in it.
And depending on if we’ve had difficult personal experiences, these memories can be happy or like a curse.
The brain is sorted chronologically, from past to present experiences. Helping us recollect details that can help us now and in the future.
Sometimes though, our brain becomes jumbled in thoughts that we aren’t able to chronologically sort through.
Imagine this next scenario is yourself, maybe 10 days from now…
The sun is shining through your window.
You’re at your desk, flipping through pages in a binder.
“write John Smith down, write John Smith down,”
you keep repeating to yourself.
Whatever file you’re looking for must be really important to have this name written down on.
knock knock
You look up, your eyes slightly swollen from lack of sleep.
The door creaks, and your mom says,
“Honey, you’ve been in here for over 6 hours of the day! Get outside, you’ll catch sick if you keep this up.”
You brush a strand of hair out of your eyes and gruntle, “I will once I get this paper filled.”
The paper.
Your eyes go wide as you swing you head back around and start madly grasping papers in the drawer,
I forgot it! I forgot it!
Then you turn to the sky and yell out, “NOOOOO!”
Sounds familiar?
Maybe not exactly, but in some way we’ve all felt the annoyance when you have something remembered, but forget it right before you write it down.
That information can be important for right at that moment, or you know you’ll need it sometime down the road.
Experiences are like this.
They stay with us, like diamonds that form in the rough over time.
And once ready, they’re not easy to let go.
Yet, we have several of these diamonds floating around in our brain, cluttering space.
When our brain can’t organize for us, that’s where freewriting is the cure.
Writing those cluttered pieces down helps us not to forget it, and to learn from an experience we had.
Not only do we have these diamonds in written form, but it becomes better organized in our brain, too.
Writing is like manually sorting our brain, without having to dig in there to sort it ourselves (not like we humanly could anyway).
Some people call this journaling, others freewriting.
They’re all ways to organize the info in our brains, help us to understand our past circumstances, and to apply what we learned for the future.
Another way to freewrite is by putting together a Second Brain.
A place to put these floating pieces of info in, and make it easier for us to order them so they’re written down before they’re necessary.
That way, we can have the information when we need it.
There are many software’s to choose from when it comes to organizing this info.
But nothing stands in comparison when it comes to Notion.
There are even creators who have designed second brain systems for you! It’s easy to find, but I’ll pop a few links here to use.
Our brain not only helps us in information processing, but with our routine, too.
Chronology gives us a plan between 1, 2, & 3 after all.
Knowing what we need to do at certain times of the day is part of chronology, helping us to have a balanced routine in understanding the information we’re studying, working on, researching, etc.
For example, at night our brain processes slow down — not great for organizing information mentally.
But in the morning, our brain is active and aware — at least when the morning sun starts over the horizon, signaling day-time.
Choose the times when your brain is best able to process that email you wrote to your client!
Routine planning is essential in knowing the right timing, and in turn, where to put our priorities on our timeline.
Using the right tools and understanding how our mind works can help you remember better, and not only have an organized desk-Â but have an organized brain!
Take the time to slow down,
write that piece of information you were supposed to remember,
or even better, journal your day.
Your brain is the most organized you’ll ever be,
but you have to help it out for it to help you in return!