People have asked me why I think writing stuff down is so important so let me talk about that just a tad more.
Look too many people attempt to rely entirely to much on there memory to keep track of all the many and wondrous things that go on in their lives. From important dates to detailed work on projects, both at work and at home, what friends, relatives and other loved ones like and don’t like, what are our dreams and goals of the future, the name of the person we met at the seminar last month to the name of the pretty person we talked to for an hour at such and such party, etc. And this is on top of the many daily routines such as how to drive, how to iron our clothes, get to work, the chapter that we stopped at in the novel that we’re reading and the like.
Now don’t get me wrong the human mind is a truly wondrous instrument and I can’t praise it enough it in how it operates over the course of our life and the remarkable ability it has to help us keep on top of so many things. Yet why not give our poor beleaguered brain some help in its millions upon millions of tasks that we demand that it performs each and every day. Why not relieve some of the stress that we heap upon this gray matter. Why don’t we, wait for it, write some of the stuff down that is always bubbling in the inner most recess’s of our mind? Jot down a few of those items on a regular bases, that seems to need to demand some of our attention regardless of the fact that at this particular time that these seemingly random thoughts occur to us there is nothing that we can do about them at the moment. I would dare say that the importance of writing these items down, and reviewing the list of what we write on a pretty regular bases is that, not only do we keep a record of those thoughts and feelings which may prove to be useful at some future date and time but also by recording it somewhere we will remove a little of that nameless nagging stress that we always seem to carry with us no matter where we go or what we do.
Recording these thoughts, ideas, appointments, tasks, plans in some manner that makes sense to us and in a system that we find reliable and systematic will go a long way in improving how we feel about life and about ourselves and our ability to function in this world in which we live.
Another reason for writing things down is that the simple act of doing so aids in our self reflection or helps us in looking at the big picture. Seeing the whole from another angle supports us in getting some manner of prospective on the thoughts and/or actions we need to take or plans for future action.
If you read any material on self improvement or increasing personal productivity in almost all of them they stress the importance of “To Do Lists” or of “Brainstorming” on paper or whatever electronic device you might be into. There is something almost magical about writing things down and the effect it has on a person’s ability to achieve anything. Please, please, please commence to putting your thoughts, plans, ideas, dreams, goals etc. on paper, or in your computer or PDA. Do this regularly for 30 days and see if you have gotten further along in any of your plans and/or goals. The results may surprise you.
