Hey stranger,
In this episode, I explain a simple 30-second trick that will turn your brain into a problem-solving machine.
If you prefer watching, you can find the YouTube video here. If reading is your thing, then enjoy the transcript below.
Hi, I'm Vasili, the host of The Daily Recall show.
This is the place where I share the things I have learned and understood well, so that you get to think yourself smarter in just five minutes a day.
Today, I explain a simple idea that will turn your brain into a problem solving machine. So that you don't have to do any proactive work at all. It will just keep solving problems for you. Sounds cool? I will walk you through a simple three-step process, and you will get to see how it works for yourself.
You've got many problems hanging around in life. And you constantly think of them. And the problems are not just things like send humans to Mars or define new quantum computer equation. The big things. They're really daily life stuff that you have to deal with. And you've got a lot of them hanging around and constantly demanding your attention. This actually reduces your creative output by a lot.
The problem is that you think "of" them, not "about" them. If you haven't defined this problem clearly, then your brain cannot actually help you in any way whatsoever. It will just keep throwing this stuff at you; keep reminding you of this nagging problem. That's why you probably have had similar thoughts in the past 24h: "Oh, I gotta finish this paper" or "I gotta make money" or anything that keeps reminding you of its existence.
But you're not moving forward on any of them. And the reason why you're not moving forward is because you haven’t thought "about" them; only "of" them.
So you think "of" problems, not "about" them. And we need to change that. And the simple process that I'm going to teach you is exactly what you need. It's designed to structure your thought towards the outcome and towards resolving the problem instead of just thinking of the problem. And once you do that, your brain starts solving this problem for you on autopilot. Once you do this 30-second exercise, you upload the thing to your brain, and then it does wonders for you.
Let's walk through the process now.
You probably have some problem in life that is demanding your attention. Any sort of problem, no matter how big or how small it is.
I’ll take submitting taxes as an example. "Oh shit I’ll need to do this taxes thing" is the thought that’s hanging out there on my mind and I keep thinking of this problem over and over again. And there’s really no point in thinking twice about the same thing unless you like thinking about this thing. So the thought emerges in different forms: "Shit I need to do taxes and they’ve got this new form and I have no idea how to actually do that" - that’s another example of how it comes to me time to time.
The first step to structure your thinking and to let your brain help you is to write the thing down. You need to take this vague idea of a problem that is flying around in your head and you need to write it down. Gran a pen and a piece of paper and follow along. Your iPhone and Notes app will do as well. Just write the thing down as it is; just like you hear it in your head. Do not spend time on defining it using some methodologies like SMART or any other stuff. Just write the thing down. In my example, I’d have written: "I need to submit taxes next week and I have no fucking idea how I’m gonna do that." That's the first step.
If you actually did the first step, then you have already changed your brain. You pulled this thing out of your working memory.
Your working memory is valuable but badly designed; it can only hold just a couple of objects at a time. And when this problem is there, nagging your attention, it's also taking the precious working memory space. This is bad because working memory is the interface that your brain uses to communicate with you. And if you have a giant pile of stuff flying around there and filling in all your slots all the time, you won't have any new ideas at all.
Your brain is fucking around and not doing anything to work on the problem. When you haven’t taken the thing out of your working memory, your brain's most important goal is to keep reminding you of this thing so that you don’t forget it. But it can’t work on resolving the problem because you haven’t structured your thought yet and haven’t defined the outcome. That’s the second step.
The second step is to define what you want to get out of this problem. You must think proactively what is the successful outcome. In my example with taxes, I’d have written down: "Submit taxes on time." All you need to do is to clarify the outcome that you wish to achieve from resolving this situation.
This is the most important part in this whole video. When you do this, you actually change the thought process; you structure it towards the outcome; you go from thinking "of" a thing to thinking "about" the thing. And when you change the thought process, it actually changes the brain on the physical level.
And if did this second step, you’ve just turned your brain from being a master and throwing stuff at you to being a servant and working on the problem on autopilot. But there’s one more thing left.
That's the third step.
To let your brain work on autopilot, you need to set a course.
Imagine yourself being the captain of the ship. If you’re a captain, you don’t have to spend every second ruling the ship; that’s your assistant's job. But your responsibility is to set the direction where the ship is gonna go.
All you need to do in the step three is to outline the very first idea that might get you closer to the successful outcome. Ask yourself: "If I had nothing to do in this but to work on this problem, what would be the one thing that could get me a bit closer to the successful outcome?" And write it down.
If you did that, now you’ve got three things written down. A vague definition of a problem. The outcome you want to achieve. And the tiny next step that might get you closer to achieving the outcome.
In my example with taxes, it’d be: "Go read more stuff on new taxes format on government website."
And that's all you need to do to make your brain solve problems on autopilot.
This whole process can be described by what I call the neurosurgeon metaphor.
Imagine that you are a neurosurgeon. The guy who does surgery on people's brains. And if you had a brain problem, you would not really want to do the surgery of your own brain, right? That’s a really dumb idea because you'll die. You would invite a colleague to help you do that instead of just taking out this giant knife and cutting your brain in half.
But that’s exactly what you do every day. Every day when you’re not following this process, you do the brain surgery on your own brain. You try to use your brain to do something within your brain. And that's really stupid. Don’t do that.
Write the thing down. Define the outcome. And outline one next step that might get you closer to the outcome.
This applies to any problem. Anything from taking the trash out to sending humans to Mars can be amplified with this simple three step process. Just do that, and then let your brain help you.
Thank you so much for listening.
I hope you've tried this thing. If so, let me know in the comments if it did any good to you.
Take care,
Vasili
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
How to Make Your Brain Solve Problems on Autopilot - Simple 30-Second Trick