Abstract Observations

What do you do when you have too many thoughts in your brain? If you had asked me this question before 2021 then my answer would be – just leave it, ignore it, and then they will automatically get erased from your mind through the eraser of time.

But there is a small problem with this. I have a sticky mind where thoughts get stuck and when they become too many, they make a knot where all the thoughts are like yelling at me and forcing me to smash my head on the wall or just do something to keep my mind off the thoughts.

I heard that many people have this kind of thing when they are depressed or tense. But this is sort of a regular thing for me.

The major problem with this is that it reduces your tendency to focus on one thing or a task and also reduces your productivity. Along with this it also made me short-tempered.

I read this article somewhere about brain dump. (sorry I forgot where I have read it, but you can read a similar article in Inc)

So basically “brain dump” is a technique where you write down whatever’s on your mind for 30 minutes or less. Whatever is in your mind, just write it down in a straight flow without overthinking about it. The brain dump is an essential way of cleaning your mind.

You start feeling light-minded, calm, and clearer.

So In mid-2021, I started writing my mind down but I changed the process a bit and did it slightly in a different way. The Swami Vivekanand way.

Swami Vivekanand once said “...Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life; dream of it; think of it; live on that idea. Let the brain, the body, muscles, nerves, every part of your body be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone…”

So, Instead of writing everything down which popped into my mind, I just took one of the major thoughts and write it down in a most straightforward way. No filters, no overthinking, no judging. Just honest primary thoughts.

My Process –

As mentioned in the book, “power of habits”. It is very important to have a trigger point to make the next step automatic. So I created the same.

My process is very simple. I do the following in the exact order in the morning from Monday to Saturday.

  1. Read a book - 30 min

    I read for two reasons. One, to add new perception and knowledge in my stack, and two, it helps me to forget about weak thoughts and only the sticky thoughts remain in my mind after the reading session.

  1. Typing practice to warm up my mind - 10 minutes

    There are two benefits of daily typing practice. One, it helps me to increase my typing speed, and two, it helps me to process all the thoughts cluttered in my mind as no extra thinking skills are required while typing.

    For the interested, I use the “keybr” website to do writing practice and my average English typing speed is 85wpm and 103wpm top speed.

  1. Write - 30 minutes

    I first think about all the thoughts popping in my mind select one of them and start writing while processing the thought.

I don’t –

  1. I don’t pre-decide on what I’ll write about. It is just an instant decision.
  1. I don’t do any research or search on the web as all the thoughts are there in my mind already for some time and already briefly processed and half baked.

Now it becomes sort of a habit and I’ve written 261 pieces in my journal as of 2021.

During re-evaluating the written pieces in December 2021, I have noticed that most of them cover my general observations mainly about daily life, human behavior, relationships, entrepreneurship, finance, and productivity.

Most of them are well explanatory in the form of articles (not all but most). I unintentionally wrote these pieces in the form of articles based on analogical or logical thinking.

I feel some are good enough to be get shared in the open (at least it is what I think. Let me know your thoughts in the comment section).

One thing is common in all pieces and that is, they are my reflective observations about anything while doing abstract conceptualization.

This is the reason why I’ve named this platform “Abstract Observations” where I’m going to release the selected and most relevant pieces of miniature thoughts from my journal.

What’s in for you?

To be honest this is not for everyone.

I’m sharing this to share various general observations and how they appear in real-life scenarios and to start a discussion about them. I know general observation can vary from community to community or maybe person to person.

Not all topics but definitely some of them may have crossed your mind in past. You can learn whether they are applicable to your scenarios or you think differently. Also, other topics that never crossed your mind in past but definitely need your attention as they may Make you think.

I’m unapologetically want to mention that –

All the pieces are my personal opinions. As all the pieces are written from personal observations, some of the content may not be correct. Also, my native language is not English so you may find some mistakes too.

Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy reading these small pieces.

Happy reading!!