The Stress of Guinea Pigs#
Temporary notes, instant inspiration, inspiration notes, and rough notes are all ways to describe a fleeting note-taking method. It needs to be dealt with promptly. After using it, it should be deleted immediately instead of being left there, commonly known as occupying the toilet without defecating.
It's like the accumulation of waste in the body after the absorption of nutrients from food. Why would you keep the residue and waste? The invisible inspiration has already put a lot of pressure on you.
This pressure makes you not want to write, not ready to write yet. I'll organize my inspiration notes and collect materials before writing. In the end, it's still more appropriate to start writing after I'm fully prepared.
The greater the pressure, the less willing you are to write. That's why inspiration notes should be dealt with quickly and the reasons behind them should be deleted immediately.
Similarly, the same should apply to collecting information from various sources.
We collect useful information and news from WeChat, Twitter, Telegram, RSS, and other channels. Although it is convenient to save them at hand, some people, like me, are not anxious about not having time to organize the collection for a long time, but spend more time looking for an all-in-one collection tool.
I want to consolidate the information collected from various sources in one place for easy management. For example, Cubox, Simplified, Readwise Reader, optimizing collection methods.
Of course, the fastest way to save is still the built-in bookmark function of each tool, such as Twitter bookmarks, Telegram bookmarks, WeChat bookmarks, Chrome bookmarks, whether on desktop or app. Undoubtedly, this is the fastest way to save.
Information Hoarding#
This distributed collection, scattered information everywhere, quickly accumulates into mountains. At first, you will go through them one by one, skim through them roughly. As they become more and more, the pressure you bear becomes greater and greater, so you unconsciously reduce the frequency of opening them.
I have had this experience when using Flomo. I collected with great enthusiasm, collecting every wonderful sentence and paragraph, so that I can appreciate and digest them when I have free time.
Finally, when I had time to open Flomo, I found a mess of fragmented texts. It's difficult to categorize them, and they lack associations, making them difficult to read.
In the end, all I can say is, "I'm too busy today, I'll come back next time!" and hurriedly escape.
Since then, I have never opened Flomo again. I'm a little scared, facing those "brilliant inspirations." Because of my laziness, they become flawed despite their brilliance, which is a sin.
This condition, also known as "information hoarding," stems from the personal need for security, the fear of missing out on good things. How come others have it and I don't? How come others know it and I don't?
Vanity also plays a role. You are so outdated, you don't even know about this... Let me tell you, the tools you use are too outdated. Let me show you what advanced productivity tools look like.
Lastly, a very important point is the lack of a sense of security.
The blogger you like is inexplicably banned, the article you like is deleted, the website you like returns a 404 error. For various reasons, many articles, books, and movies that you think are good suddenly disappear.
To avoid the feeling of loss when something is clearly there but I can't see it, I keep collecting, which eventually leads to information overload, high blood pressure, and gout attacks.
Prevention and Treatment#
How to prevent and treat this "information hoarding" condition? I think Obsidian, a person I really like, provides a good idea in Obs125 | 闲聊 Fleeting Note 的翻译与其本质 - YouTube.
That is, inspiration notes, including various collected information, articles, reading lists, watchlists, playlists, etc., all belong to something that can stimulate certain groups of neurons in your brain in an instant. Regardless of the purpose of collecting them, they are rough notes that need to be processed and must not exceed three days.
Just think about what would happen if you didn't defecate for three days. The waste must be cleaned up in a timely manner.
Some people may ask why three days. Because with the current speed of information iteration, if the information is not processed within three days, it may no longer have the value of being saved. In short, those topics and efficient software quickly become outdated and are replaced by new topics and applications. If your articles quote or recommend these outdated information, it doesn't make any sense.
When ChatGPT went viral on Twitter, there were almost new shell applications being launched every day. If you don't filter and try each one, you will inevitably miss out on truly useful information.
Three days does not refer to a specific time limit, but rather a preliminary screening and selection of the information you want to collect. If you want everything, you will end up with nothing.
"To read or not to read, to listen or not to listen, to keep or not to keep?"
If you want to read, set a specific time to read. If you want to listen, listen immediately. If it is truly useful, save it. In this way, the various information collected is processed immediately, categorized and stored in various places, becoming permanent notes. You can put down the heavy burden in your heart, reasonably organize the collected materials, and not be hindered.
At this point, various app bookmarks have been cleared, and the brain becomes active again, no longer being influenced by the emotions that remind you of the good things in your bookmarks that you actually don't care about and urge you to check them.
In summary: Don't be too obsessed with an all-in-one collection system. Process the collected information within three days, and clear the bookmarks promptly after processing. The best state for inspiration notes is to be readily available and disposable at any time.