Make room for fresh thinking

You already know that your brain is not great at long-term storage. You probably don’t even remember what you had for lunch 2 years ago (pathetic human). You’re even worse at short term memory. In fact, the way you keep an idea in your head is by repeating it to yourself over and over again. Think of the last time you needed to memorize directions. “Right on Main Street, Second light: turn left, building #713. Right on Main Street, Second light…”. You use the same trick whenever you have an insightful thought. Suddenly, you start seeing reminders of that same thought everywhere and its all you can think about.

When your mind realizes it has thought of something important, it will struggle to remember it by keeping it in your very limited short term memory. The best way to clear the mind without loosing the thought is by writing it down.

Overcome Masterpiece Syndrome

Most people call it “Writer’s Block”. I call it “Masterpiece Syndrome”. People think that writer’s block happens to them because they can’t think of anything to write. In reality, they are stopping themselves from writing because they think that what they write must be perfect. “Anyone can write mediocre work”, they think, “It is my duty to write something amazing!”.

Consider this: a study was conducted on two groups of art students. One group was told they had 3 months to produce a masterpiece. The other group was told to produce one piece every day for 3 months. By the end of three months, the group that practiced daily was producing a masterpiece every day while the group that was told to produce a masterpiece missed the deadline.

When your goal is writing daily, not making masterpieces, you’re more likely to make a masterpiece by accident.

Solidify your thinking

We all suffer from lazy thinking. What may seem like a logical thought might be guided by pent up emotions or your inner desire to be right. Humans invented language as a tool to transmit thoughts from one person to another. Practice using written language to encapsulate your thoughts as this will make you a more effective communicator. If you think your thoughts are interesting, there’s an audience eager to let you give them the same thought.

Try to re-read what you’ve written and ask yourself if the words you’ve chosen do the thought justice. Maybe the thought was incomplete to begin with, or maybe you just need to practice your writing. No worries either way, there’s another chance to improve tomorrow!