Mind Performance Hacks

Chapter 2. Information Processing

Although memory is a core human faculty, and developing it will reward you well, as a literate human you still need to process recorded information, whether books full of text or digital files full of audiovisual data. How can you cope with the hurricane of information that pounds your eyes and ears every day?

This chapter will show you how to capture the best of the informational flood quickly, whether it comes from outside or inside your skull. It also will show you how to sort that information, structure it, and ultimately discard it from your life when you no longer need it.

Hack #13. Catch Your Ideas

Good thoughts can come at any time. By recording them, you can bring them together and encourage your brain to give you more.

Interesting thoughts can come to you at any time. Perhaps you're getting groceries, in aisle A4, and suddenly you have an idea for a program you're writing. Or you're driving, and a point in an argument comes to you. Or you're in the shower, and you realize something about life.

But later, you simply forget. The very next day, you're tasked with writing that program, or giving your side in the argument, and you ask yourself, "Now what was it I was thinking?" Perhaps you are stuck living the same day over and over again. "Didn't I have a thought about a different way I could think and live?"

In this hack, you're going to collect your thoughts using a catch. This is not a simple diary; this is an advanced system for collecting ...