Your brain is an amazing thing. It allows you to understand language, do maths, catch a ball, and appreciate music.
But in some ways, your brain is really, really dumb. Or, rather, your brain doesn't always work the way you would want. This is especially noticable when you try to remember things.
Consider this: what if you took an important file home, and you absolutely, positively had to remember to take it back to work the next day. If you forgot, you would lose your job - it was THAT important.
How would you make sure to remember it?
Ideally, you would tell your brain to give you a reminder, something like "when I walk out the front door tomorrow morning, I want you to remind me about the file."
Wouldn't that be great? But have you noticed that our brain doesn't really work like that?
Instead, once you tell your brain to remember something, it will start to remind you at almost random times.
- You'll be watching TV that evening, when suddenly your brain will pipe up: 'whoo there, don't forget to take that file tomorrow.'
- As you're dropping off to sleep, you'll have the thought 'I'd better remember to take that file tomorrow.'
- Your brain might even wake you at 3:30 in the morning to remind you: 'musn't forget that file tomorrow.'
Then, the next morning, the cat has made a mess in your shoes, you're busy getting the kids off to school, your shirt needs ironing, you can't find the keys, and you're running late. As you rush out the front door, still cramming some breakfast into your mouth, what does your brain forget to remind you? That's right, the file. It might remind you when you're half-way into work: 'hey there, did you remember that file?'
You see, our brain is not very good at remembering things exactly when it needs to. Instead, it reminds us randomly, at the most inappropriate moments- often when there's nothing we can do about it. This is the best it can do.
Now what if you're trying to remember 10, 20, or 50 important things at once? Your brain is constantly reminding you of things you haven't done. This results in a very busy head. Does your head ever feel like this?
One the other hand, have you ever noticed that once you've safely 'captured' an item, your brain relaxes? For example, when I'm cooking, I might notice we're nearly out of oil. About 10 times while I'm preparing, cooking, or
cleaning up, my brain will remember 'we need more oil'. Then once I walk over to the shopping list and write down 'oil', all the reminders stop. My mind relaxes, and I forget about it. I forget so much that I don't think about it again until I'm off to the shop, and I pick up the shopping list.
The key is, that until our brain believes that something is handled, it keeps sending us reminders.
Knowing that our brain works like that, we develop little techniques to help us. With the important file that you need to remember - you might put it in the front doorway, so that you can't physically leave the house without
stepping over it. I've done that before - it's very effective. And the thing is, once I believed that I could not possibly open the front door without noticing the document - guess what? I could completely relax.
This is so important that I'm going to repeat it:
Your brain can ONLY relax when it trusts the external system that you're using.
Now, what happens if you put your items into a system that the brain doesn't trust? Well, you're just transferring what the brain has to worry about.
Have you ever put an appointment into your diary, but then missed the appointment because you forgot to look at your diary? That would be an example of an external system that your brain won't trust. Now, instead of reminding you 'don't forget the appointment', your brain has to remind you 'don't forget to look in your diary'.
Your brain won't relax, it won't stop giving you reminders, until it knows that the thing is handled.
The key to getting everything done that you were supposed to do, and having a quiet, relaxed head at the same time, is putting everything you need to do into a system outside your brain, that your brain trusts.
This is where GTD comes in handy. GTD (otherwise known as "Getting Things Done"), is a productivity system designed by productivity guru David Allen. You may have seen it mentioned in other places- it's currently taking the internet by storm.
But why is GTD so popular?
Well, there are lots of reasons, but one of the main ones, is that it's a simple, easy to understand system, that your brain can trust. And it's a system that allows you to put practically anything of importance into it.
Which means that your brain gets to relax.
A relaxed brain is quite hard to appreciate until you experience it for yourself. All of a sudden, you get MORE done, in LESS time, and have more fun doing it as well!
Give GTD a try... I'm sure you'll find it useful, and it doesn't take long to learn. To learn more just search for "GTD" on the web, or have a look at one of the many GTD tools available.
Dan Fletcher is a developer at dogMelon. They make NoteStudio, a great tool for implementing your own GTD system. Try the free demo today!
