Information Overload

(image credit: Dirks Big Bunny Blog)

Enough is enough. My brain is FULL. It’s full of important stuff – busy keeping track of all the ins and outs of running a business, keeping life organized, working with clients, and getting things done. I must say, does a pretty good job of keeping it all organized, most of the time.

But when I use it for these things, it occupies itself with mental activities that are all lower level tasks, easily organized on paper, in a calendar, or in a system. And… this gets in the way of creating space and time for far more meaningful and important tasks – creativity, expansion, spiritual growth, and simply being present.

While I’ve known this for years, I’ve never come up with a reliable system for holding the massive amount of information I need to keep track of as well as read, watch, learn, and process every day.

It’s not for a lack of trying.

I’ve tried lots of tools (Todoist, Asana, Notion, Dynalist, Workflowy, Evernote, OneNote, Apple Notes, Google Keep) and systems like bullet journaling or Getting Things Done (GTD). But each time, I start out with an incredible amount of vim and vigor and excitement, read ande watch all I can about it, spend days learning how to use it and getting it set up, and in six to eight weeks, have completely stopped using it… every time.

After going through this cycle at on at least six different occasions, a couple years ago, I decided that I just wasn’t cut out to use any sort of system. I relegated myself to taking notes on Apple Notes (since it synchronizes quickly between desktop and mobile), Fantastical and Google Cal for my calendar, and doing my best to remember the rest.

Last week, I came to the place I’ve been many times in the past… overwhelmed by all the STUFF to keep track of that has been circulating around in my head, occupying space, weighing me down, and requiring valuable attention of my mind.

I need a reliable DIGITAL BRAIN that I like and will continue to use over time.

Rather than perusing the web for the latest and greatest app, tool, or system, I decided to turn to something I already know and have used before to minimize the learning time and quickly get up and running. Since my track record of sticking with a tool like this is poor at best, the less time investment I make for now, the better.

What did I choose? A very simple, yet powerful tool called WorkFlowy

It’s a simple digital outlining tool that lets you get all the things out of your head through the use of bulleted lists. You can organize it any way you want to, and nest your bullets as deeply as you want. You can also zoom in to work with one bullet point at a time if you want to really focus.

In the past, I set it up to use the GTD system, but this time… I’m going rogue, and setting it up to match my own needs.

Let’s see how this goes!!