LPT: Condense a thought or an idea down to a single word, and make a mental list of these Individual words until they can be recorded elsewhere and cleared from the mind.

Submitted by TheShaggyRogers23 t3_116mr8n in LifeProTips

Here is an example:

I'm busy. I'm not able to use my phone or some other form of writing. But I've come up with several ideas in my head. Ideas I'd rather not forget about. And these are some rather complex ideas.

Say I'm up to 4 ideas. I'm still not able to record them. Then another idea, or train of thought, pops into my head. Now I'm up to 5 ideas.

Now I'm struggling to remember all of them. What was the first idea again? What was the second? I keep forgetting.

It is scenarios like this that I'll use a command I call "Bookmark".

As the title of this post suggests, I condense each train of thought down to a single word, and I create a numbered list of these words in my head until I can record them elsewhere.

This method also allows me to jump back and forth between numerous complex ideas without getting lost, confused, or disorganized.

Here's a more in-depth example:

Say I come up with an idea on how to fix something. This idea, if fully written out, would require about 4 sentences to explain.

Then a second later an interesting thought occurs to me. This thought is unrelated to the previous idea, but it's something I would like to delve more into later.

Then I have a realization. This realization is unrelated to the first idea and the second thought, but I am also interested in delving more into it.

My memory bank is getting pretty full right about now, and I can feel I have more thoughts to generate. So I choose to "Bookmark".

  1. Idea.

  2. Thought.

  3. Realization.

Then a fourth idea is generated. I condense it down to a single word and add it to the list.

I now have a mental list containing 4 words. Each word causes me to recall the thoughts associated with them.

I decide that right now I'd like to prioritize the first thought. So I delve into it. Along the way I get another idea. This idea is associated with the first idea, but they're not really alike. So I condense it down to a single word and make it the 5th word on my mental list of bookmarks.

Now I've arrived at my destination. This entire time I was walking, hense, I didn't have time to write my thoughts down.

I am now able to write down these 5 words, and their associated thoughts, to clear them from my head.

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Comments

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FoghornLegday t1_j98kgjz wrote

I don’t think the way your mind works is anything comparable to the way my mind works. Like, at all.

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TheShaggyRogers23 OP t1_j99c3ud wrote

Are you like really good at remembering things?

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FoghornLegday t1_j99clda wrote

I guess. But it’s more that I don’t care to keep each thought catalogued. If I forget an interesting thought I’m kind of like… who cares. Like I don’t understand why you’re doing all this work lol

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TheShaggyRogers23 OP t1_j99d4y9 wrote

It's largely just a hobby. I like to journal, and philosophize, and make systems, and ponder concepts, and improve areas of my life in little ways. And these pursuits often require sharp bursts of flow and creativity.

I by no means use this method constantly. Probably twice a week at most.

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turtleheadmaker t1_j98qmuo wrote

Take your own advice and shorten the post.

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TheShaggyRogers23 OP t1_j98ve1v wrote

TL;DR: When you can't immediately write down your recent ideas, reduce them to one-word summaries and keep a mental record of these words. Not only will this approach enable you to retain more ideas, but it will also allow you to navigate between them effortlessly.

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keepthetips t1_j979x9p wrote

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