External Brain: Double Your Thinking Capacity

Our brains are remarkable at dealing with abstract concepts and connecting the dots. And while our brains can store an impressive amount of information, they’re not always reliable when it comes to remembering. Memories fade or don’t always come up when we need them. And it’s just not efficient to remember certain things - knowing how to look them up is enough (think phone numbers).

This is why it’s important to have personalized system for storing information externally – what I call the External Brain. It’s the solution for capturing everything from To-Do items to shower thoughts, and doing so is called Externalization.

Brilliant thinkers throughout history have carried around notebooks to jot thoughts into. They often credit their creations to connecting the dots between the various bits they recorded. Today we are bombarded by an overwhelming amount of information on top of what we actively seek out and make specific note of. Keeping track of it all is next to impossible. There are many ideas that we have, useful concepts we encounter, that just get lost in the noise.

Making it a habit to keep track of any bits of information that may come in handy later is like creating your own personal search engine with information tailored to your work and life: your projects, medical info, reminders, stats, etc. This way, whenever you’re working on something, you can easily pull up everything relevant and useful that you’ve collected over time.

The less your brain is trying to remember, the clearer it is and the easier you can focus. This habit also helps to keep you free from the destructive effect of mental pop-ups.

Examples of things to externalize instead of relying on your memory:

Something you need to discuss with your spouse or team member.
Something to bring up in a meeting.
That great quote you read.
A concept that would be useful in an upcoming project.
A “dealbreaker” for an upcoming negotiation.
Medication instruction from your doctor.

There isn’t a uniform solution for everyone when it comes to the External Brain.You may use the tools you are most comfortable with, but do make sure the following criteria are met:

It should be convenient to have around, and it should be simple to add new info.
The input should be easy to search.
A free-form tool to clip materials into is the best choice, as it mimics the non-structured nature of our brains.

FACTS:

Information is power, especially when you need connect the dots on various items (like when writing a book or report).
Our daily intake of information is equivalent to 34 gigabytes, 100,000 words, or 174 newspapers, depending on who you ask.
The tools we use to retrieve what is relevant have not caught up. Searching through a hard drive of Word files, all our browser bookmarks, or a 12,000 email Inbox is not efficient.

When climbing big walls, we use topography maps to remember key points on the route. Our heads need to be clear for the climbing moves and ropework. Extra information is the last thing we need when focused on the next foot placement.

External Brain 1-2 (RobF USB cable) Basic Image.png

SOLUTIONS:

Use an external tool as your External Brain (e.g., Evernote, OneNote, etc.).

As soon as you have anything to externalize, use your phone (or a pen) to get it into that tool.

Build the habit of externalizing anywhere and at any time.

“Your Brain is for having Ideas, not storing them.”

– David Allen