The palest ink is better than the best memory. ~ Chinese Proverb

My various filing systems work because my brain can trust that I’m going to go back and review them at a reasonable interval.

My to-do items, even the ones way out in the future, are in my Remember The Milk account. My long-term projects (and all the associated notes & research) are filed away in my Action Method account. The bookmarks I don’t want to lose are in my Delicious account. The other random things I don’t want to forget are in my Backpackit account.

Because I’ve written everything down, my mind is relatively uncluttered. If my subconscious reminds me of something it’s because I haven’t captured it using one of these methods. Once I’ve remedied the situation, my concentration is back.

This is one of the reasons I can read like I do. One of the chief complaints I hear from people about why they don’t read is distraction. As soon as they get a few pages into a book they’ll remember something at random. The reason for that is the solitude.

Reading and meditation are the two times you’re completely inside your own head. The rest of the world fades away and you’re left with nothing but the images. With that kind of quiet, it’s no wonder that your subconscious is able to poke at you whenever it thinks it needs to.

So the solution: write it down! Figure out what works for you. Steal my methods. Do whatever it takes, but get all that stuff out of your head!