Always Write Things Down

I just realized that the past few posts are all about investing and stock markets, since there is some interesting happenings going on right now. However, the market is going into a mode of uncertainty as the bulls and bears fight out the war right now. Therefore, I’m writing something different for a change, I guess it’s more or less related to self improvement. Actually, everything I have to say is within the title already, but I would just like to reinforce the importance of writing things down.

Firstly, if you’re like me, you most probably have forgotten to do something once in a while. When that happens, we usually say that it’s not important, that’s why we forget. However, if it is really not important at all, why did we want to do it in the first place? Therefore, I believe in writing things down so that it seems to make the thing more important psychologically. Secondly, having it taken down somewhere means there’s a higher chance for us to stumble upon it and remember. For myself, I take it a step further and frequently use my handphone to record down important events or things I have to do.

All our handphones have a calendar function, but it’s ironic how few people use them at all. Think about it, I don’t like to type text on my handphone at all, cause I’m super slow with it, but even I bother to type my schedule in. Why? It’s a simple answer… because it works. There you go… make full use of your handphone to record down and set alarms to remind yourself to do a certain thing. You already paid for your handphone, so it makes sense to use as many features as possible to get ‘value for money’.

In an office environment, I have a tendency to paste post-it notes all over the monitor, especially when my job requires me to answer phone calls. Think about it, just answering one call might make you forget what you were doing and dismiss it as unimportant, simply because you can’t remember it. You might be in for a surprise when the boss asks whether you have done that job. If you had written down the tasks you were supposed to do when you were given them, you always have something to refer to. Isn’t that just spending a little effort to increase your overall productivity by leaps and bounds?

In fact, these simple habit of jotting things down are practiced by upper management also, except that they have their secretaries to write down for them. We don’t have that privilege, so we must take note of them by ourselves. In simpleology, a self improvement course, it’s recommended to spend 15 minutes per day just to jot down whatever you need to do for that day. It is really that important, remember: always write things down.