Writing everything down

I would like to testify to the power of writing things down – everything, from ideas and observations to the questions that may bother you at any given moment. Opening up your favourite text editor and putting it in there is a great way to empty your mind buffer so that it can be filled with what might be more immediate concerns.

Not every situation is suitable for every topic that your mind stumbles on for which you feel is worth exploring. You may be in school or at your job or simply not in the mood to go into it deeply. So bright ideas, interesting or just troubling questions, a new way of thinking or looking at things – it can all go as easily as it came – unless it is written down. Not only that you bypass the curse of forgetfulness, but you allow yourself to look at the given thought from a different perspective as there is a chance you will not be in the same exact frame of mind when you go back and read what you’ve written.

This could result in anything from dismissing the original thought as bad or simply resolved or actually building on it even further. Writing things down is sort of like communicating with yourself right now and yourself at some point in the future (no matter how close or far it may be). And like every conversation you are bound to eventually discover something new. Yes, even by talking to yourself you can discover new things and enlighten yourself. It induces a productive thought process.

You can have a multitude of files with your notes for various categories that you feel are most distinct from each other. In my case I’d categorize it between workflow stuff as is basically the “todo” file and the exploring stuff which can contain notes of my observations, questions, new ideas all of which can pop into my mind as I read, watch or listen to something or even purposely ponder a topic of some kind – in essence exploring. We are all, to a point, explorers, unless your sense of curiosity is absolutely dead (which I doubt). Even when not doing it intentionally as we go through routines in life, there could be things that catch our attention.

Why they catch our attention? The answer is the reason why we are all explorers: curiosity. What we perceive somehow interacts with the interests currently ingrained in our consciousness or subconsciousness and it triggers a reaction like “I want more of this! What is this? This is cool!”

And when that results in a new observation, a question (that you might not be able to intelligently answer right now) or an idea, writing it down is like capturing it at its blissful flyby down your brain’s path-ways. It is also a satisfying experience – you caught it, it is there, it is yours and you will be able to refer to it any time later. A unique thought can be so powerful, it could earn you richness and success in life for all you know. If you write all of your special thoughts down how much closer might you be to becoming a successful person?

Cheers

Tags: Personal, Philosophy, Self improvement