✍️ Write everything down

How many books have you read that you could no longer explain to a friend?

How many meetings have you been in where decisions are made (often with great enthusiasm) and then as soon as everyone leaves the room things fizzle out and never happen.

How many thoughts have you had that inspire you to change but then are lost in the infinite bombardment of notifications, tasks, click-bait headlines and content that surround you on a daily basis?

All these situations come down to a simple trick our mind plays on us. An illusion where we convince ourselves that our memory will store this important information for later.

It won’t.

And it’s not meant to. Our short term memory has been studied and is believed to only hold 4 “chunks” of information at a time.

These bits are vital for our work and day-to-day activities. So it’s no wonder these momentary ideas and thoughts don’t make it through the filter.

But that doesn’t mean that we should just ignore them as unimportant. Some of these thoughts and information can be crucial to changing our lives for the better.

In fact, our brain will often race with some of these subconcious thoughts. Often at the worst possible time.. when we are trying to fall asleep.

Thoughts that haven’t got out of our brain can lead to increased anxiety and decrease sleep quality.

So how do we capture these messages and empty our brain so improve our sleep?

Simple, write everything down.

There is a system called a “Second Brain”. The goal is to capture information somewhere so our “primary brain” is free to do the most urgent or daily tasks.

However, it can also be a lot of work and can be made overly complex.

In this article, we’ll discuss a minimal version of the “second brain”.

There are 3 key components to the concept of a second brain that even a minimal system should include:

1. Write down thoughts, ideas, and information
2. Organize and make connections
3. A system for review and recall

1. Write it down

The first and most beneficial step is to write everything down.

Everything.

Write notes, lists, ideas, thoughts, and feelings.

Do not overcomplicate it. Don’t be paralyzed into inaction by worrying about where to write or if you’re writing correctly.

Just get it out of your head. You’ll get the immediate benefit of knowing it’s captured.

2. Organize and make connections

Now that your thoughts are somewhere other than stuck inside your head, you can easily organize them.

There are countless systems for how

My advice would be to try some of the most used systems and find what works best for you.

But start simple. If you overcomplicate this step, you will add friction to this habit and it will be harder to stick to in the long term.

3. Review and recall

If you’ve made it this far, you have a well-organized system for note-taking, and you’re already getting most of the benefits of a “second brain”.

However, being able to search, review, and recall information from your second brain is incredible useful.

If you organized your notes well, you should be able to pull up related information at the exact time you need it.

If your notes are digital, they should be easily searchable by keywords, topics or dates.

Regularly go through your folder structure and move things around based on your current life situation, active projects, and archive any old notes.

TL;DR

In today’s modern world, you are constantly bombarded with information overwhelm.

In order to organize your thoughts, you need to write everything down and store it somewhere you can access the information when you need it.

1. Write down short notes, thoughts, ideas, and feelings
2. Organize them using a system that works for you (try the PARA Method)
3. Review your structure weekly, archive old notes, maintain your second brain

Grow your second brain and your brain will thank you. You may benefit from reduced anxiety, improved sleep, better focus and recall of important information.