Brain as Storage Device

We all know that how amazing is our brain. It can do several things at a same time. Can you think of something which is similar to brain? Yes you are correct, it is computer. I want to draw an analogy between our brain and computer.

Computer has predominantly three parts, CPU, memory and hard disk. CPU is used to do all the processing, make decisions and execute the decision. Memory is used to store the information CPU is processing currently and hard disk is used to store information that is not currently processing and also to store data for future use.

Similarly brain also has a processing unit, let’s call it as CPU also. This brain’s cpu does something similar to computer CPU but at a greater level and skill. Unlike computer, brain has only one memory, this single memory does both the work of computer’s memory and hard disk. It’s amazing that it can do this much efficiently than computer. There are some disadvantages with a single memory.

What is the problem with this single memory? Have you observed that when you are doing a serious thinking, all of a sudden you remember a work that you needs to do or some work you put off to do at a later time. Yes this happens all the time. When your brain is processing and searching for data in the memory it will fetch the to-do items and much more. In most of the times this is distraction and you lose focus on what you are thinking. So what should we do?

In computers hard disk purpose to remove the distraction when the CPU is processing. So that computer can focus on the current job. If needed computer will fetch the data from hard disk into memory and process it. We should also do something like that. How can we do that?

Similar to computer we should keep our data in a hard disk. For example use computer or a paper to store your to-do tasks. If you are using computer for your to-do tasks, computer will keep track of your tasks and gives you reminders so that you will never miss a task or appointment. Now when you are thinking of some important task most likely your to-do tasks will not come interrupt your thought process. Sometimes they do come up, but you know that these reminders are stored in a hard disk (computer), so you don’t digress much on these to-dos and you will return to your thoughts immediately. Another example is, as you know it is recommended to keep your thoughts on a paper, which is our external hard disk J.

As you see it is better to keep your to-do tasks, thoughts and other things from brain memory in to an external places such as computer, dairy, journal etc. Doing so will free up your memory and your brain can perform efficiently.