This note is essentially a summary of the themes of The Extended Mind, with some other goodness from Getting Things Done The Art of Stress-Free Productivity thrown in.
The popular model of cognition for most of my life thus far as been the so-called “brain-bound” model - where human intelligence and thinking essentially only happens inside the confines of the skull. This is, however, both wrong and reductionistic. Stopping there neglects many real-world life-affecting methods and mechanisms that are used pervasively, and they come in many disparate forms.
Thinking with Your Body
Emotional Algorithms are a thing. Your body is capable of learning on a subconscious level. This is one reason to get good at reading your body’s signals (through Interoception) and using your body when thinking (to incorporate Proprioception).
Recall the firefighter who saved his crews’ lives by calling for immediate evacuation of the collapsing house. Only after was he able to put into words the wisdom his body held, “my feet were too hot”. That was chocked up as Thin Slicing, but it’s also definitely the result of the body extending the mind.
Recall that Gestures Reveal Learning Before It Happens.
You can cultivate better brain-body connection by using Interoceptive Shuttling. Ask yourself what your body is telling you, and What is this Situation Asking of Me.
Walking Aids Thinking - move your body! Especially walking outside.
Thinking with Your Environment
One comment thing that separates amateurs from professionals in any given arena is how effectively they are able to cognitively off-load to their environment.
Utilize Contextual Reminders, like putting your keys by whatever you need to take with you when you leave.
Write down Fleeting Notes when making measurements.
Utilize whiteboards, cork boards, and gigantic monitors to make use of your biological predisposition to memorize places and pull in spatial reasoning. Recall the author who literally outlines his books across his entire wall.
Use nature to restore your energy through the use of breaks.
Use solitary spaces intermittently in combination with areas of communion to achieve Intermittent Collaboration.
Thinking with Your Tools
This is what Evergreen Notes are all about. The Smart Notes Standard Workflow is built around this concept (because Writing is Thinking). This is where you get into David Allen’s ”Think, Don’t Remember” mantra comes in. It’s the point of the Inbox, Task Managers, and Project Lists.
That’s what I’m doing right now. That’s what My Notes are all about.
Thinking with Others
Humans are social creatures. What “we can do” is not what we can do by ourselves. You have people, use them!
You can get a jumpstart on things through the use of Imitation and benchmarking.
You can learn better through teaching the material to others.
You can offload responsibilities for certain strains of knowledge to others with whom you have a relationship. This is the “I’ll do the money, you do the school communication” split.