Your Brain is a Supercomputer.

Your Attention is the RAM.

RAM is basically how much power the computer has.

Your body is the Power Supply.

Your journal is the External Storage

The Gym, Books, and Internet are Upgrade Shops.

This analogy is the base of this newsletter.

If the Brain is a Supercomputer, then the average person's brain is like a Google Chrome page with a minimum of 50 tabs open at any given moment of the day.

The more programs that are running in the background, the more energy you're draining from the computer.

The goal is to 'X' out ALL of the tabs,

and have only 1 running.

The 1 tab running indicates Flow and Focus on a single given task.

How do you 'X' out tabs?

Every tab is like an idea.

Your brain is good for generating ideas, not storing them.

No. You will not 'Remember it'

Open tasks tend to occupy short-term memory (no matter how irrelevant they are).

Open loop tasks, thoughts, and information that is not written down, is NOT saved in your mind like a memory stick.

It floats in your conscious attention, slowly eating away at it, unless it is written down, taken care of immediately, forgotten, or is replaced with something more important (according to your perception).

But here's the kicker:

The Brain doesn't distinguish between an actual finished task,

and one that has been postponed by writing it down.

Writing your thoughts or tasks in a place where you know it will be taken care of in the future frees up memory in your mind.

Your Brain is only great for Having Ideas, but garbage at storing them.

You need a place to write down your ideas.

• A notebook,

• iPhone note,

• sticky note,

ANYTHING.

You just need a place to write (paper or software),

and something to write it with (pencil or keyboard)

Let's call this - The Queue

The Queue is where everything exists:

• Ideas

• To-Do's

• Routines

• Thoughts

• Reminders

To expand on the Supercomputer analogy, here's actionable steps you can do to improve your 'Brain Power':

• Quality Sleep (everything starts with sleep)

• Meditation (the most direct influence on attention)

• Diet (carnivore diet is when your mind will best function)

• Reversing entropy (aka, disorder) by a simple to-do list

Learning

Books are the best for First Principles Thinking

First Principles basically means,

"What do you know to be 100% true, and something that will not change no matter what"

(eg: Gravity - if you stop holding an object, it will fall)

There are very few books that give principles in a given domain.

These books are usually the ones that are worth reading first,

and then rereading every 3-4 months.

The reason why Rereading the same line,

from the same book will give you new insights,

is because now you have direct experience in the real world to relate the text to.

Learning means - "Same condition. New behavior"

You don't Learn when you read a book.

You Learn when you implement what's said in the book.

Exposure to Information is NOT Learning

Take more action than information.

When you read a book for the first time, you expand your worldview.

Imagine the thoughts, ideas, patterns, and awareness as stars in the night sky.

When you read a book for the second time, you develop Understanding.

Understanding means Connecting the stars.

There will be times when you read something and don't understand what it means.

And then out of nowhere, after a long period of time, you get insight into what it meant (or at least, your perception of what it meant)

You may read a book on Creativity, but you won't understand it unless you read that one on Spirituality.

Or you already understood it, but that book on Philosophy gave it another layer of depth.

The way to acquire Deep Knowledge is to simply connect these dots.

Like a Web.

For every idea that a book presents, imagine it to be a small dot.

Let's say a book has 50 ideas (each being interconnected in n number of ways)

You read another book and you have a total of 100 ideas.

This goes on and on:

• the number of connections you can make,

• the order of combining those connections,

• and the way how they are presented...

is infinite.

The 'spine-shivering' part:

You and another human may have read the exact text of the exact book,

and perceived it in a completely different way.

The old saying, "To you, it's a 6 but to me, it's a 9"

Why does this happen?

because every person (even twins who grew up in the same house)

has experienced life differently.

It's these experiences that form the lens through which one perceives information.

Reading books to build a base is how you can improve the potency of your creativity (aka the way How you Connect the Dots)

Always read with a notebook in hand (or a place to take down ideas).

Our mind makes sense of things through stories, metaphors and analogies.

• "oh this sentence reminded me of that"

• "omg this is exactly what he said in that podcast"

• "damn. this relates to how she was behaving that evening"

WRITE. SHIT. DOWN.

Most people read and get an insight and don’t note it down.

They forget and then keep getting the same thought every time they read the book — like they are reading it for the first time again and again,

but it doesn’t help with anything because they haven’t added it to the overall knowledge base.

The way how you know you truly understand something,

is when you can explain it to a 3rd grader in your own words.

Follow Your Genuine Curiosity

"What book should I read?"

The one that you want to

The only way you will love learning is if you learn about what you are genuinely curious about.

Don't try to put yourself into a box.

Don't try to finish that one book till the end of the cover because 'you have to'.

You don't have to finish every book just because you started it.

'Would you finish a YouTube video if it bored you 2 minutes in?'

If you don't feel like reading that book right now, don't.

If you try to 'push yourself' through it, you will start to hate learning.

Don't overthink this.

• Read what you want to

• Learn what you're genuinely interested at a given moment.

Principles v/s Tactics

Learning through books is good for timeless principles.

But we also need modern-day tactics.

That's where the power of The Internet comes in.

• Videos

• Courses

• Newsletters

• Mentorships

• Online Communities

All of the internet resources give modern-day tactics.

The problem that most people face is relying solely on tactics and never learning the foundations.

They are like little kittens that jump around to the newest thing,

rather than the lion who sits next to the watering hole waiting for the cattle

(because it knows the principle - 'every creature gets tired and thirsty')

You can get mediocre levels of success applying tactics.

But you will always be lost without a foundation.

You can make the tastiest advertising,

but it doesn't count for anything if you don't understand What a Business is and Why it exists in the first place.

Cement your foundation with principles.

Improve your skills with explosive action.

"A skyscraper needs to go 100 feet deep before it can go 1000 feet high"

Actionable Tactics

Tactical section of this Letter

Pilot v/s Plane

Become a Pilot the night before the next day.

• set the destination coordinates (what is the goal?)

• set the path (what are the needle moving tasks that need to be taken?)

When you sleep, imagine you're refueling 

(aka replenishing your energy for the flight tomorrow)

Tomorrow, you’re in Plane mode.

All you have to do is follow the Path you set.

Problems that may occur

There may be headwind.

Things will pop up throughout the day that distract you from the plan

(most times, it will be your own lizard brain).

Snap back to the present.

You can have thoughts and feelings, but NOT act on them anyway.

• Meditate to improve awareness

• take 1 deep breath to refocus

• improve Willpower

Why this works…

At night time when you’re deciding what the perfect day will be like tomorrow,

you are devoid of any feelings.

You’re making decisions with cold logic

• what time should I workout?

• what food will be best for me to eat?

• what is the main-frog task to knock out tomorrow?

When you make these decision throughout the day, you are subject to emotion.

You will try to convince yourself (but in reality, it's cope),

• “oh it’s fine, i can do it later in the day”

• “what if i just cheat my meal right now and make up for it with more cardio? yea that’s a good idea”

Even though you’re aware of this, you can still fall victim

remember

Humans are emotional creatures.

We’d like to think that we make most decisions through logic,

but in reality it’s only 10-15%

You think you make logical decisions.

You Don’t.

You make emotional decisions, and then you try to justify it with logic.

Use your phone for productivity

Steve Jobs created the iPhone for 1 purpose:

"To have the power of a computer in your pocket"

Change the relationship you have with your phone.

Instead of it being a place to watch YouTube and scroll on TikTok,

use it wisely.

The only 3 apps you need:

• Clock

• Notes

• Calendar

• Reminders

Use Alarms for recurring time-sensitive routines:

• Gym

• Work

• Wind-down

• Bedtime

• Waketime

Use Calendar to:

• set deadlines

• schedule events

• visualize where your time is going

Set what time:

• You are going to the gym

• You have to take a call

• You are going to learn

• You have an event

Extra tip: Color co-ordinate things that fall under same category

(this is very easy with Google Calendar)

• Red = Work

• Gray = School

• Blue = Personal

Use Reminders for recurring & non-recurring time-sensitive tasks

• Cleaning house (every week on Friday)

• Groceries (every 10 days)

• Expenses (on the 30th of each month)

Extra tip: Use folders and indentation to segregate the tasks & reminders

Folder example:

• Work

• - Personal

• - University

Indentation example:

• Personal

• - Housekeeping (every week)

• - Bathroom

• - Laundry

• - Broom

• - Mop

Every task that you have to do sometime in the future,

immediately schedule a reminder for it.

Delegate stuff to the computer that sits in your pocket 24/7

This is how your brain becomes more and more free because it doesn't need to think about trivial tasks.

Use Notes to write shit down.

• The Queue to write down EVERYTHING that comes in your head.

(shortly, we will discuss how to turn all those ideas into action)

These 4 apps are the absolute essential for your productivity system.

Anything else is a distraction.

• You don't need an app to meditate

• You don't need 7 different apps for creativity

• You don't need 5 different apps for note-taking

• You don't need a notion template for cute aesthetics

You just need:

• a place to write your ideas

• a system to delegate things that are irrelevant to your work

Ideas into Action Steps

Imagine your Life to be a Video Game and your Self to be the Player that is going through the game.

At every point of The Game, you are processing information:

• When you are socializing, you are exchanging information with others.

• When you are walking down the road, you are exchanging information with the environment.

• When you are alone, you are exchanging information with yourself.

When you’re reading, your brain gives you an action step you can take to apply that information (aka learning... behavior change)

Imagine this to be a Quest that pops up in your HUD

(Heads-up Display... aka you Conscious Attention)

You can either:

• Do it RIGHT NOW, or,

• Add it to The Quest Log

The Quest Log is basically a big to-do list of things that you can (and should) do to take action on the information you've acquired.

• Note it down when your brain gives you that quest.

• And actually Take Action

Convert The Queue into The Quest Log

(disclaimer - a lot of the shit that you wrote down may become irrelevant once your emotional state is different. Delete them)

Every 1-3 days,

Convert all those Ideas in The Queue into Actionable Quests to complete

This is IMPORTANT

Most people get an idea, and Never act on it.

It's wasted potential.

Ideas beget Ideas.

You won't get better ideas unless the shitty ones are out of your system

Set Lethal Deadlines

You won't take action until it is required.

Think about it,

whenever you've had an assignment due 1 month from now,

• do you do it right away?

• or 1 week before?

• or the night of?

Imagine if you set a deadline yourself to do it withing 3 days or you will fail the course.

You would do it right away

This is hard to do.

Especially for creatives and business owners.

Deadlines take away from the slowness and creativity of life.

When you're a business owner, you are the one who sets these deadlines.

There's no boss telling you what to do.

You have to take responsibility for it yourself

Deadlines suck,

but it Gets the Work Done.

On a side note...

You won't Take Action unless you're Dissatisfied with where you are.

There's a video from Hamza Ahmed that I love.

You should watch it to understand this part.

Wall Papers & Wallpapers

Fill your Physical and Digital consciousness with Reminders to keep you focused on the current season of your life.

Remind yourself of:

• Your Purpose

• The Mission

• The Priority

• The Path

• Mindsets

• Quotes

• Goals

• Write it down and tape it all over your wall.

• Put it as your phone lock screen

• Set it as your desktop wallpaper

You need to be reminded, more than you need something new.

Final notes

I've refined this system over 3-4 years,

(and it is something I will do for life... because it's fun)

and here are a couple of things I've noticed along the way.

Penetration of consciousness

Some people find it valuable to have everything in one place.

I tried that. Didn't work for me.

The problem that occurred was that,

Tasks were spilling and coming into my conscious attention when I didn't want it to.

It ended up distracting me from the current focus.

How irritating is it for you to do a Deep Work task,

and because you write down every to-do in 1 place,

you are reminded to do laundry first thing in the morning.

Here's autistic systems that I use to prevent this from happening:

I have different google accounts:

• Legal stuff, Pass-time, Entropy

• Personal (for newsletters, subscriptions, accounts, et.)

• Work (plainly for writing, content creation, youtube)

• Uni (only uni tasks)

• Stuff like LinkedIn, Taxes, watching Netflix (when life gets grey) all exist in the first.

• Things like Amazon purchases, subscriptions, and almost everything that's related to me is segregated into the second

• To not be distracted by any of the above, I have a separate account plainly for business, content, et.

• University gave me it's own account

Also, my university google calendar and personal google calendar are separate.

If I need more segregation, I use apply different colors in my gcal

(Honestly, It's overkill. I tried doing all that color coordination. Not really needed. And not really useful since my phone is always on greyscale haha)

Having a segregation in my digital consciousness works wonders.

I don't think about uni assignments when I want to read a newsletter.

Also, clear up your fugging desktop.

I know for a fact that you're not organized when I see your desktop having 37 different files.

Imagine you open your laptop to work.

All of these things are the first thing you see and, well, congrats, you're distracted.

The only 2 things I have on my desktop:

• a folder for storing shit (that I hardly ever look at)

• recycle bin

Even the software's that I use are just on my taskbar (if that).

If I want to use an app, I search for it, or have a desktop shortcut.

Do the same with your phone.

Remove all the apps from the home screen and see how many times you mindlessly open your phone.

Become aware of 'Phantom-thumb syndrome', where, when you change the location of an app (like TikTok), your brain ends up clicking on the place it was before.

"wtf. i didn't even want to use the app. my brain just habitually swiped up, swiped left, and tapped"

MEDITATE FFS.

Your phone is a tool that You use. Most people get used by their phones.

Other autistic things

I only ever think about university tasks when I'm in the computer library.

I made rules for myself over the years to just make my brain as focused as possible:

• No university work outside the lab (keep those tasks isolated)

• No personal work inside the lab. (only uni tasks inside uni)

• No uni work on personal computer. (this is giga chad tip. I only do uni tasks on PCs inside the uni lab so that whenever I open my laptop, I don't ever think about 'that assignment deadline' that's coming up)

Last tip - for my OCD / Organizers / Notion Template Users:

Fuck your cute template

for 4 years ever since I started using notion, I wasted countless hours trying to make my notion as aesthetic as possible.

Like a pissing contest.

I used to think, "Yeah I will show it to them and they will be impressed"

Number 1) No one gives a fuck

Number 2) Even if they do, they remember it for the few minutes you show it to them. Then it's forgotten.

I seriously wish someone slapped me earlier.

Organizing your notion isn't what's gonna get you laid ffs.

No girl is gonna think, "mannnn this chadddd had such an awesome habit tracker template. I wanna fuckkk with him ughhhhh"

Fucking idiot I was (im laughing and beating myself as I write this lmao)

Take this final tip:

"If you only used Apple Notes, how would it look like?"

It would be just different folders with notes in them.

Do just that.

Simplicity > Aesthetic

You don't need 17 different sub-folders for your journal, and then your template journal, and then your templates from Ms. Aesthetic Notion chic.

You just need a place to write shit down.

And then act on that shit.

Your brain is a supercomputer.

There are dedicated parts of your brain that store long-term memories and experiences.

When the time is right, the neurons will connect, like an avalanche of insight.

(p.s. Write it down when that happens)

hope this was helpful.

~ Maaz Des