You Have Only Enough Room In Your Head for You | In-Between the Pages

Focus. It has gotten harder and harder as access to knowledge gets easier. We have everything at our finger tips we need. That’s not always a great thing though. Sometimes it comes at us with the force of a fire hose. We have a finite space available in our heads. You cannot carry everything with you, so what do you do?

Our heads are like our hard drives and RAM on a computer. Once the virtual space of a hard drive is gone, it starts to spill into our short term space or RAM. That RAM space is important because it allows us to move back and forth between tasks . Once that starts to take on spill over from our hard drives it slows us down .

But like our technology we can off load information and save it elsewhere for when we need it. We just need to stop trying to do it in our head. That’s where I want to take some extra time with you on this post and share with you. We will cover both analog and digital formats that are great for achieving what we are going after.

Information is incredible to have, but as much as we need it ready at all times, we don’t need it in one place. Journaling is a great tool to warehouse the information we collect through out the day. Our information we collect comes from learned experiences. It’s learned or picked up from something you got in an article read from the internet. It piles up on top of each other until you max out. I have a great habit daily of writing in the morning. I usually do so after reading the news first thing or my email. Then as I collect through the day I off load my thoughts again in the evening before bed.

Some simple suggestions:

Moleskine – A small paper journal will suffice. $10 is out of pocket cost. You keep it with you to jot that random catch and go back to business as usual. Perfect for catch and release ideas as a solution.
Day One – A great digital option. Available for iOS. It can actually grab links from emails or articles and send them to the app for later critique. You don’t have to consume it on the spot and decide whether you have to keep it. This way you save the space in your head during the day for what’s most important.
Notes – Stock iOS option that’s free on all Apple products. Syncs through out the eco-system using iCloud. You can access the notes whenever and on whatever you want. (Yes, you can access/edit the note on a PC through the web browser.)
One Note – Available on all platforms from Microsoft. Also syncs across devices or to their drive in the cloud.

Those are few popular ones. I am sure that there are is a incredible amount available. So many platforms you can work on digital or virtual. Find something that will work for you. I read reviews of the products a lot. You get a true sense how others like yourself are doing working through them.

Simple recap. You need to have a practice and daily discipline of off loading information you collect. It doesn’t matter if it is professional or personal or both. To be at your best you need all the space in your head you can get. You will find an incredible amount agility, flexibility, and freedom in this practice. You can keep your head free. If you do it right, alternative storage options like journaling can help. It’s an easy best practice.

Please take some time in the comments section and list some of your favorites. I’d like to learn from you and there are definitely others out there that have the same need.

Thanks reading and I hope your week continues to be amazing.

– Shawn