Your Brain is a Horrible Hard Drive

The phrase “brain dump” is one I use a lot. For example, right now I’m just brain dumping words to see where they lead to write this article for a very loose topic I’ve wanted to write about.

I subscribe to the notion that action leads to motivation, so here I am, taking action. I don’t know if it’s the large Ethiopian coffee I just downed or actual motivation or both, but after writing the title and the first few sentences, I’m motivated.

If you’ve read my article about unfucking your digital file system, you’ll quickly know that I like to keep my life stored in some server farm somewhere and therefore accessible pretty much anywhere I have a phone or computer with an internet connection.

Barring any unforeseen Electromagnetic Pulses, I feel that I’ll be able to access my data with great confidence when I need to. In highschool, we were issued a planner at the beginning of every school year. Whoever designed the thing put a lot of thought into it and it had everything a student needed to keep track of important things like when there was a test or remembering to shower.

I had friend who would load that thing up to the point where there was more writing and scribbles than actual whitespace. Mine? It was a barren wasteland.

Holidays and special days were never forgotten because they were pre-printed in there. I never forgot another National Organ Donor day again.

Somewhere to Dump my Brain

Flash forward to 10 years later to 2013 where smart phones have become an extra appendage and “there’s an app for that” became the standard answer when someone had a frustrating problem they were trying to solve.

I got better at putting things into a calendar and writing things down. If it needed to be scheduled, it went in Google Calendar which syncs across every computer I use, including the extra appendage one.

Subconsciously, I think this was what I was waiting for in high school, a way to enter something that’s not on a single source that could easily be left on a school bus. I could enter something on my work computer and it would show up on my phone or home computer. Magic.

This was good for things that came up that I KNEW I had to schedule such as doctor’s appointments and goat yoga. I realized that the remaining things on my mind needed a home because I had maxed out my brain storage space with things such as my friend Chris’ parents’ home phone number stored somewhere in the brain folds.

Getting Things Done

It was about this time that I was introduced to Getting Things Done by David Allen. Up until this point, I never really gave any thought to organizing my life in a productive way. At this point, I was full-time adulting and I didn’t have to give productivity and organization a second thought in high school when I was just a free-range teenager.

I consumed all the material about the “Getting Things Done” process and implemented something that resembles the process, in a digital way, of course. Searching for somewhere to brain dump, I came across Trello. I needed something that was simple to use and intuitive and paired nicely with the simple process that David Allen had detailed.

Every thought I have, article I want to read later, quote I want to save, thing I have to do, or project that needs to get done goes on my “Life Organizer” Trello board.

I’ve made this board a template and also submitted it to Trello so you can use to your productive heart’s content.

As I go about my day, if I have something that I need to remember, I stop and immediately put it in the “Inbox” of the Life Organizer. I have a shortcut on the homescreen of my phone that allows me to quickly add my thought.

I also set up my Google Assistant to dump thoughts on the board using only voice through IFTTT (in case I’m driving or Onewheeling, don’t text and drive kids).

Inbox Zero

If you’ve read anything in the productivity space, the concept of “inbox zero” may have come across your newsfeed. Merlin Mann coined the phrase and he is as much as a wizard as Merlin from King Arthur.

I “inbox zero” my Trello inbox at scheduled times in the day; 10am, noon, and 4pm. I don’t ALWAYS hit these times exactly and it doesn’t ALWAYS happen but it happens 90% of the time.

I look at my inbox and take the GTD approach, clearing out all the items until there is nothing left in there. Things get done right away if they take little time, others get scheduled, or turn into projects for longer planning later.

Lemme splain the columns:

• Inbox — I explained this one already, all items get dumped here.
• Next Actions —During an inbox zero session, items that are not quite as big as projects but not quite as small as a “do it right away” item go here.
• Waiting On — When I’m waiting on someone else to do something or make a decision, items go here so I don’t forget. I’ll ping ’em later if I don’t hear from them/it in a couple days.
• Projects — This is the column that gets to most items. Things that need to be done around the house, larger ideas, blog post ideas, things to make, etc. end up here and [hopefully] get revisited. Sometimes things linger on the list and I have to do a purge.
• Read/Watch/Listen — You know when your friend watches a movie or a show and/or reads a good book that they have to tell you about and then you reply “awesome, I’ll put it on the list!” This is that list. I usually break out the categories; books, movies/shows, podcasts, music, etc. and add a checklist to each with that book that friend recommended.
• Remember — This column gets items and they usually stay there. This is sort of my external hard drive of my brain. I’ve been known to put quotes in this column, gift ideas for the wife, things I want, or resources that I may find useful in the future. I also clean this up from time to time.

This process works well for me and I’ve been using it damn-near 10 years now. I believe is has really kept me organized and productive as it was meant to. I sometimes look at the board and wonder how I ever remembered anything before. I love tools like Trello and I love that people like David Allen established a process and shared it with the masses.

“Add, send thank letter to David Allen to my Trello board.”