Is Organizing Your Ideas, Documents, Contacts A Nightmare? You Need The Brain!

Today, I'm going to introduce you to a program I have been using for several years. It's a tool that has literally transformed how I organize information on my computer.

It's called, The Brain, and while it's not near as powerful as the thing between your ears with the same name, it is pretty amazing!

It can't really be fully appreciated until you see it in action, but I will tell you that the reason I use it every day is because it allows me to organize nearly any file, document, bookmark, or idea in a way that allows me to break free of the limitations that using folders.

Consider this: All the files, documents, bookmarks, and ideas you have on your computer are all just separate pieces of information that typically relate to one another somehow. If you own a business, you might have several files relating to that business that you store in a My Business folder - things such ad Word documents, spreadsheets, and graphics - they're all seperate files, but they all relate to your business.

But what happens when you have a file (maybe a PDF on setting goals) that has meaning to you in two separate areas of your life (your business and personal life). Do you put that file in your business folder, or your personal folder, or your success folder, or just on your desktop because you can't make up your mind?

This is where The Brain really shines, because it allows you to take a single file, document, bookmark, or idea, and organize it in a way that that the file has meaning in several different contexts of your life. If you're using The Brain to view all the documents relating to your business, the goal PDF will appear and be readily available for reviewing. Likewise, if you're using the Brain to look at the content on your computer relating to your personal life, that same goal PDF file will appear - no need to put the same file in two locations on your computer.

You can think of all the files on your computer as puzzle pieces that can be combined in different ways in order to form whole concepts (your business, a particular project, your family and friends, etc.) Depending on the task at hand, The Brain will bring together various files and resources on your computer to present you with a visual map representing the complete picture of that task or concept.  

Think of The Brain as a visual replacement for Windows Explorer (it doesn't actually replace Windows Explorer, but is more of an alternative to it).

The functionality of The Brain is largely based on how our actual brain works (a single thought or idea can have several meanings or contexts - this is sometimes referred to as free association). You would think that because of this fact, it would be pretty simple to begin incorporating its use into your everyday organizational tasks.

For some it will be, but for others, the idea of using folders is so ingrained, it may be a bit more of a challenge. It's worth the trouble to break through any barriers you may initially experience.

Using folders to organize information is useful to an extent, but there's nothing like the free association power that using The Brain provides.