018 | Remembering for a fuller life
A more in-depth look at why I built a new creative system
Today I published a post on my other, more successful and industry-specific newsletter (go subscribe!) about a system I created over the weekend for tracking all of the media I consume.
I was inspired to create a creative system for documenting media after watching this video by Mickey Galvin. I highly recommend checking it out.
I hesitate to call any of what I want to track “content” for this project because that feels trite and lackluster. What I am looking at is anything deeper than surface level “content”. Books, movies, more fleshed out ideas, or things that make my gears turn even if the subject is something vapid. I am in a world where short form videos wash over me like a shower with very good water pressure. They move fast and it feels good, but it’s no soak. It’s not sitting in an Epsom salt bath and marinating. You know what I mean. When you watch a movie and it stays with you for days. When you see a tweet and reference it for the next year. I think I come across ideas like that more than I realize and the fact that I’m not sitting with them is making them forgettable, and in turn making other things forgettable.
To keep it simple, the more experiences you have and see, the less boring you are (like I mentioned before here) and the more you deeply understand other things. This gives you a rounder, more encompassing understanding of yourself and your world as a whole. Things make more sense the more you take in and relate. As you do this, you start seeing what other experiences or information you need to have to fill out your web of understanding.
As I explain in the other post, elaborative encoding is when your brain stores new information by relating it to something you already know. The more connections a piece of information has, the more paths your brain has to reach it later. More connections = more likely to remember. A good tip for this in practice is when someone tells you their name, try to relate it to something else that you know so you’re more likely to remember it the next time you hang out, or even later that night if you’re like me and forget names quite often. If you watch something and quickly scroll past it and don’t give your brain a second to sit there and relate it to something else, that information is more likely to go by the wayside, flowing right in one ear and right out the other. After you read a book, write a thoughtful review and try to connect it to other things in life. Same with movies. If you hear about a new concept, try to think about what it looks like in practice. Try to make a web of your life.
I am documenting what I find interesting with a Notion database and in the newsletter, I put behind a paywall how I made a shortcut automation on my phone and MacBook to send links to it every time I see something interesting. In reality, you can make a Google Sheet and track all of this too, or even a notes app on your phone. All of those are free (except for the newsletter paywall). I think it’s important not to make it in one social media app, like a folder on TikTok or saving on Twitter or a book on Goodreads, because you want to see all the ideas in one place. Of course, link your Goodreads reviews and your TikTok responses, but it’s really interesting seeing it all written out in one place. Whatever system works for you, do it.
I am going to track everything I consume for the month of July, and if it goes well, I will let you know.
I would love to know if you have a creative system and what that looks like. I am always around, send me a message or shoot me an email.