Capture. Store. Review. The importance of building your digital brain.

In March 2018, I had an important presentation to make at work. 
I was sick before, maybe the accumulation of work and stress.
I decided to take some risk in my introduction and use a new methodology.
In the end, I captivated the audience and it was a great success.

In a few days, I’ll have another crucial presentation. Reading my feelings stored in my “digital brain” and the process I went through in 2018 gives me a lot of insights. It’s not really the experience that helps us to grow, but the perspective we develop around it.

Recently, I offered flowers to my wife. I bought them online.
I could start to browse, compare, register on a website.

But I haven’t.

In a few minutes, I ordered her favorites, wrote her a card and linked it to a  personal photo.

Why it took me only a few minutes?

I searched my “digital brain”, typed flowers, and found out the different companies I already used.
I read my comments and selected the best one, was already registered and just had to order.

I couldn’t do it directly from my head but even if I could, I’m not sure it’s a good idea to clutter up my brain with 10,000 notes. I’m trying to make better use of it.
For my “digital brain” there is no limit. The system I use (Evernote) has no boundary.

The importance of creating a system to store and review.

We live in a world of information. Digitalization accelerates it.
Being able to sort out, keep the essential, review and retrieve is crucial to improve our organization, execution and creativity.

The simple idea is to build a system that works for you to capture, store and review your “digital brain”.

I’ve started to stock in Evernote 10 years ago. I do have 10,000 notes today. Here is my process:

Capture sources:

• Phone: I use Drafts (faster than Evernote for text) and Evernote for all the rest.
• Physical: When I have direct interaction with a person, I prefer to take physical notes. I use a notebook and need two things, an index to quickly retrieve my records and a consistent but straightforward codification to rapidly spot important information. These two components were a game-changer in my physical notes taking.
• On my computer: Everything I want to keep as information.

Store:

All the captured elements go to Evernote. It’s my one place storage. I don’t use folders; I use a tagging classification.

Review:
The underrated but most important part.
Capturing and reviewing are two different processes. 
If I try to do both at the same time, It does not work. In the middle of the action, I don’t have the time to organize and classify the info. 
It’s like writing and editing. It’s often advised to separate both.
But it means that you need to build a disciplined system to review and process the notes.

That’s where everything is happening — the learning, the ideas, the organization, the inspiration, the actions.

I review my physical notes every day, send the actions to my task manager (Nozbe), and the information to my “digital brain” (Evernote). I treat my digital info during my weekly review.

When you find your way, you’ll gain clarity, creativity and discipline of execution.

Enjoy the process.