Civilization before acquiring the skills to read and write such as the ‘hunter-gatherers’ relied on their memory, which was critical to their survival. They had a heightened awareness of their surroundings and recall sites and locations for water, food, wood, and stones they used to create weapons and shelter. This is still innate to us even though many but not all have easy access to the same basic needs of those hunter-gatherers. Our natural inclination is to retain, process, and organize information in our mind and see no need generally to write it on paper, or nowadays on our note-taking and word processing apps on our electronic devices.
The difference is that the world is much more dynamic through the integration and advancement of technology in just about all facets of our lives. We are so much dependent on technology to the point of not being able to function socially and professionally without it. Yet, we do not leverage the tools available. I am not advocating that those tools are better than mental abilities, but rather they can work in concert.
The influx and the speed of all forms of information and implementation of technology have heightened and increased our awareness resulting in stress, frustration, inadequacy because we feel the need to stay on top of everything. Not knowing today is like being left in the ‘unknown and behind’. The fact is that time has remained constant and as we all have 24 hours a day and within this construct of time, we allocate a third of the time to sleep, rest, and recharge which is approximately 6-8 hours a day. This does not include time allotted for family, social, and extracurricular activities. So, truly on 6-8 hours of our total time remains that we can place our energies towards productivity.
To be productive and effective, we need to establish a ‘thinking operating framework’. My own experience has led with the view that if you do not plan; life will take you along its current similar to an unanchored and unmanned boat.
As long as there are unresolved matters on your mind they will continue to linger until they are resolved or ‘fade in and out’ of your consciousness as ‘interrupters’. The question becomes what should I do? The framework to address this comprises the following steps:
- Remove from your mind by noting it down electronically or on paper. The latter practice tends to be more impressionable because of the brain hand to eye connection. Either way, it is better than keeping a mental note of them.
- Consider and contemplate everything you have noted before you. This leads to putting things into perspective, which leads to determining what is priority putting order (structure).
- Strategize the points of action to be taken.
- Monitor and review on an ongoing basis as you will find that adjustments will be required the more dependencies are required to resolve and complete the actions successfully.
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