This is an excerpt from Todd Brown’s blog post for Next Action Associates, the only Certified International Partner for GTD in the UK.

We’ve learned enough about the brain in the last 60 or so years to know that it is powerful and dependable at some things, and limited and unreliable when it comes to others. Thinking creatively, drawing connections, brainstorming, focused thinking—all great uses for our grey matter. But counting on it to remind me of the fact that I need to buy olive oil? Allowing it to have the thought over and over “I need to email the proposal to the client”? Only half-deciding what to do with several (hundred?) emails and leaving them in the inbox to fester?

That’s brain abuse. Of course if you’re guilty of it, you are also the only one who can put an end to it. A first step would be to consider a spotter’s guide to the forms the abuse might take:

• Re-thinking things
• Leaving thinking half-finished
• Trying to fill your brain beyond capacity
• Counting on your brain to remind you when you want to be reminded

Identify your brain’s strengths and weaknesses, and stop giving it things to do that it doesn’t do very well. Remember, only you can prevent brain abuse.

You can read other blog posts and find out more about Next Action Associates here.

Tags: Best Practices of GTD, Cognitive Science, Getting Things Done, GTD Times Team - Staff Contributors, Implementation, Inspiration //
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