Forget-me-not
How to hold onto the thoughts you need
TLDR: There are internal and external methods to hold onto your memories which suit some situations and activities better than others.
Word count: 700 words
Read time: 4 mins
In last week’s poll, 70% of you expressed interest in learning how to avoid forgetting thoughts, ideas, and brainwaves:
So we’ll start with this one and we may dwell on it for a couple of weeks. Btw, I’m enjoying receiving this dynamic feedback from you (via the polls, mostly) to help shape the next topics.
It's unproductive, of course, when we totally forget an idea. But worse still is when we remember that we had a thought but can’t quite recall it. The thought is on the tip of the tongue…and it’s…what’s the word…excuciating. Very frustrating, and even less productive.
Getting a better handle on fleeting thoughts is worthwhile, partly so we capture the good ideas we have but also to help us regain our focus. When we’re constantly or even just intermittently distracted by elusive ideas, it’s hard to get much else done. So let’s find some ways to free our minds and return to the single task at hand, an ideal and a mantra which I call One Thing at a Time (OTAAT), the name of this very newsletter.
These mental events have a couple of curious characteristics. Firstly, they’re spontaneous and unpredictable. Ideas come of their own accord, without warning, making them impossible to plan for. Occurrences occur when they occur — what else could they do?! Secondly, they also go of their own accord: they’re ephemeral. And should they become forgotten, it’s as if they never existed at all (like Berkeley’s tree).
Spontaneous ideas can pop up in many situations, including those where and when it’s inconvenient to jot anything down, such as when we’re (ordered from most-able-to-attend-to-the-thought at the top to least, at the bottom):
Commuting
In a meeting
Cooking
Doing housework
Running
Exercising
Driving
Showering
Swimming
Sleeping
How to hold that thought
How we retain ideas depends on the situation we’re in. Broadly, methods can be divided into internal (memory-based) and external (recording-based).
Internal
Say it out loud: Verbalising, using physical muscles (respiratory, laryngeal, articulatory and soft palate muscles), helps to build memories, as we have more of a bodily lived experience of the thing to remember. This is one I practise frequently.
Mnemonics and acronyms: Suppose you have an idea about digital marketing, how to open a presentation and the inkling that you’d like to sow some apple seeds in your garden. That might feel like a lot, too much, to remember. But if you take the D, the O and the G, you’ve got a more manageable gateway memory. I’m also a big fan of this, which combines nicely with the next two…
Keywords: Identifying a few keywords (like garden for sowing the seeds there) which encapsulate the essence of your thought. For example, ‘garden is the keyword for the longer sentence above (you’d like to sow some apple seeds in your garden’).
Repetition: Repeatedly call to mind the idea in order to reinforce the associated neural pathways.
Visualisation: Form a vivid mental image related to your thought to effect a deeper imprint in your mind.
Association: Link the thought to something familiar or vivid. Also known as a memory palace. We humans have been deploying this method for a long time and it’s also known as the method of loci.
External
Digital recording: Writing ideas digitally is the most common and natural method. Use a searchable and synchronised platform (I use a Google doc), and develop a system to filter, process, and bring the best ones to fruition. James Clear makes many useful points about this at this point in this conversation with Tim Ferriss.
Physical notes: In situations where technology isn’t available, jot down the thought with pen and paper. Increase the chances you’ll have pen and paper around by keeping them about your person, somehow. Breivity, via keywords and in some cases illustrations, may help capture enough of the thought before it disappears.
Voice memos: Many smartphones have dictaphone functionality. And if you’re driving, a safe, effective workaround I’ve heard in researching this blog with people is to call yourself and leave a voicemail.
Next week, I’m thinking of constructing an old-school mileage chart but for situations/activities x memory methods.
***
To avoid forgetting thoughts, first identify the situations in which you're most prone to having them and then losing them. From what I’ve observed, those situations are very different for different people. Then choose the right method(s) for those situations and bring them into your life. Customise these methods, make them your own so that they feel special and important, and you're much more likely to implement them in holding onto more of your precious thoughts.
Marc
Links you might like
7 days of Timeboxing (the free email micro-course)
Timeboxing, the book (US)
Timeboxing, the book (UK)
My Insta for shorter-form content
Connect with me on LinkedIn (I will say yes)