I don’t buy this theory that simply writing things down somehow reduces stress. All it means is that those things are now on a piece of paper or some kind of digital list, usually in our pocket at all hours of the day, mocking us for not being able to finish them. Maybe instead of optimizing our means of capturing ideas, we need to optimize our brain’s spam filter. Good ideas and important reminders will rise to the top, and if we think about them once we’ll think about them again.
Matt Wood – The Important Stuff Will Come Back
I’ve spent too much time in my life making sure I have a method of recording my ideas and throwing around the phrase “ubiquitous capture” because it sounds fancy. I used to carry small notebooks and fill them up. When I realized I couldn’t find something I knew I wrote down in one of those books, I moved to a digital system.
Now I can find all the stuff I wrote down.
But there are still many important things I don’t write down and many useless things I do.
Being more critical of what I take note of is something I could be better at.
Recently, I’ve started realizing that I don’t have to be the archiver of the world. If the information exists someplace, I don’t need to duplicate it. I just need to be able to find it again. So I am noting fewer words. This makes me feel more efficient. But what I need to do is re-write the information I’ve noted. I need to distill it in my own words and maintain the link to the original. It’ll force me to slow down and decide if the information is really valuable or merely interesting.
I also need to get better at throwing away things that don’t add value anywhere. I am awash in useless links and ideas. I am building a system into which I can actually make use of notes and ideas and when some new information comes in that doesn’t fit in the existing system I need to be more critical of keeping it.
During the construction phase, I can make room or build an expansion to house the new notes, but if it doesn’t fit anywhere, I need to determine if it’s really worth keeping in the first place. Eventually, I have to stop building rooms.