Your whole life depends on you being able to retrieve things from your memory.
I’m
sure you know what I mean… “Where are my keys?” “What major tasks do I
need to complete today?” “What time is that meeting I need to attend?”
Questions
such as these bombard our minds daily. If you’re able to recall the
relevant information, you’ll keep your life on track. However, if you
fail to recall the information – your life will start to move in a
confused and unproductive direction.
We’d all love
to boost our memories, but often we go about it in the wrong way. It’s
not about how much information we can absorb into our minds, but how
easily we can retrieve this information (which most people aren’t good
at).
Information Overload = Memory Failure
We live in an information age, where our minds are besieged 24/7 by facts, figures, news, drama and trends.
To
maintain our standing among our peers, most of us strive in vain to
keep up-to-date with everything from music to movies to politics.
It’s
a never-ending whirlpool of information. And if you try to remember all
of this information – you’re likely to find that your mind becomes so
full that you begin to lose the ability to think clearly.
Information overload is a modern-day plague. And your memory is likely to be one of the plague’s victims.
For
example, when you were younger, you may have loved to sing along with
your favorite songs. Sadly, as you’ve grown older, you’ve started to
forget the words to the songs. The more you try to recall the words –
the further from your mind they seem to be. It’s frustrating, and has
probably blighted a pastime that you used to love.
Could it be that over the years, you’ve tried to remember just too many songs? Perhaps.
As you’ll see below, continually overloading your memory, can lead to recall issues and embarrassing social interactions.
It’s on the Tip of My Tongue, But…
It
can be distressing when the flow of our conversation is blocked by our
inability to recall information. And this can be especially traumatic if
it takes place during a formal work environment.
For
instance, imagine that you’re doing a presentation at work to some
potential clients. You’ve created PowerPoint slides to guide you through
your presentation, but the bulk of the message you’re hoping to convey
is held in the memory banks of your mind. You start your presentation
positively, but after a few awkward questions from one of the clients,
you notice your confidence slipping – and your recall ability falling
too! Suddenly, facts and figures seem out of your grasp. You’re
stuttering, and rapidly losing the attention of the audience. To put it
another way: you’re presentation has gone down the pan!
Storing
tons of information in your memory is worthless if you’re unable to
recall the parts you need – at the time you need them. Luckily, there’s a
way to give your physical memory some much-needed breathing space.
How to Let a ‘Digital Brain’ Take the Strain
Our
physical brains can only offer us a limited amount of memory storage
and recall abilities. These limits used to be sufficient, but as
mentioned earlier, we now live in an information age, where our ability to absorb and recall information has been stretched beyond our normal capabilities.
What’s the answer to this problem? Well, you could start by giving some of this storing and recalling work to a digital brain.
By
this, I don’t mean you should turn yourself into a cyborg. In fact, the
only thing you’ll be turning yourself into is a super-efficient and
productive version of yourself!
I’ve called it a
digital brain, but you’ll know it simply as digital or online storage.
And you’re sure to recognize some of the tools:
- Airtable
- Dropbox
- Evernote
- Google Drive
The
above software (and other similar ones) allows you to store, organize,
and easily retrieve information. For example, Pocket lets you capture
blogs, news and videos into a digital pocketbook. This is achieved
through a one-click process. Once the content is within your pocketbook,
you can retrieve and view it at any time. Clearly, this is far more
efficient than trying to remember which stories you’ve seen earlier in
the day – but hadn’t had chance to read/watch.
Instead
of trying to remember everything with your physical brain, begin moving
over some of the information to your digital brain. Whichever tool (or
tools) you decide to use, you’ll immediately be able to take advantage
of the following benefits:
- You can store as much information as you wish. (Free plans may offer only limited storage.)
- You can easily organize and prioritize the stored information.
- The stored information is available in an instant, 24/7, 365 days a year.
Compared
to relying 100 percent on your physical brain, the addition of a
digital brain will help you immensely. You’ll be able to determine what
to store, what not to store, and when to retrieve information. You’ll
also be able to use a digital brain to help you with your to-do lists
and goal planning.
I personally use Google
Drive for storing all my documents and images, and I use Todoist to help
me manage my day-to-day tasks and workload. I’ve found using a digital
brain to be liberating. Before, I used to stress over trying to remember
everything – now my mind feels relaxed and free. I also have more
mental energy for creative pursuits.
You may think
that highly-productive people must be blessed with super-powered
memories. For sure, some are, but most of these people are ordinary
folks, with one difference… They have learned how to use a digital brain
to help them store and retrieve information – and to organize their
lives.
Resource: http://www.lifehack.org
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