People are machines of forgetfulness - Henri Barbusse
The entire reason why you need a second brain is that your brain is meant for having ideas, not storing them. If you’re like me, then you have so many ideas every day. Ideas that you forget almost as soon as they come.
The solution to this is to capture everything. That is, have a system of noting down and documenting ideas as soon as you have them. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you’ll remember it later. Trust me, you won’t. And if by chance you remember, it definitely won’t be with the same clarity at which you had the first thought.
So, build a habit of capturing as many thoughts as you can. Whether it’s a new idea for a blog post, a new way to manage your money, or a lovely text you want to send to your crush, note it down. That way, you can be sure that it’s not lost.
Truth be told, by relying on your natural brain to remember your ideas, you’ll lose between 70% and 90% of all the ideas you ever have. Now imagine you have a habit of capturing your thoughts, you can easily reduce your lost ideas to 50 or 40%. And sometimes, you only need one idea to change the world.
So, how do you capture your thoughts?
There are many ways to capture thoughts, and you’ll have to design a system that works for you. You know your brain the best, after all. But, here are some tips that can help you become better at this
Record digitally, as much as you can
While writing things down on paper does have its advantages, taking digital notes has so many advantages that make it better. For starters, you can record your thoughts on any device, and since your phone is almost always going to be with you, you can capture your thoughts at any time. Capturing your thoughts digitally also means that you can access them from different devices.
Add as much context as possibly
When recording your thoughts, you want to add as much context as possible so that you can easily understand in the future what your thought pattern was, and quickly get into that thought stream. So, rather than just writing a blog idea as “Journey into mastery”, add some context around it so that when you see your notes in 2, 3, or 10 years, you can instantly understand what you meant.
P.S This is another concept under building a second brain, so I’ll explain more there.
So, let me know in the comments, how do you capture your thoughts, and what systems if any, do you use that works for you?
If you enjoyed this post, like it, and share it with your friends using the button below.
This definitely is my story, lol!. As much as I think because I do that a lot, I do a lot of talking about it. One of the best ways I found to help me innovate my ideas is to document them. Penning my ideas has always worked for me.
I can very much relate with this, Favour. I get so many ideas everyday, and often at weird times. Most times in the bathroom or when I'm laying down (half asleep, half conscious 🤣🤣).
Anyways, I have two methods for keeping stock of ideas. I have a journal. And then, I have a Whatsapp group for just myself named ideas. I drop voice notes there randomly 😊.