Let pictures be an extra brain

Preserve attention for what matters

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is to snap pictures so you don't have
to remember everything, leave your mind free for important stuff.

(00:26):
Let pictures be your extra brain. So how many times
have you been in a hurry at the airport and
intended to note where you parked your car, only to
rush into the terminal and then a week later find
yourself wandering around the parking garage. If you stay in
a lot of hotel rooms, the same thing can happen

(00:49):
with room numbers. You check in and a rush, go
to dinner, walk back to the hotel, and then wait,
was I in room three twelve this week or last week?
Maybe you look at the poster at the gym with
the updated schedule of classes and tell yourself you'll remember
when the new spinning option is, but once you're home

(01:11):
it's gone. Or maybe it's a great statistic in an
article you're reading. You definitely want to mention it to
your spouse, but when you are talking about it later,
you find you can't quite remember the way the author
put it. The human brain is a leaky bucket, but
The good news is we don't have to rely solely

(01:33):
on our brains. Letting pictures be an extra brain can
help avoid all these scenarios and more. We can write
things down, of course, but we don't always have pen
and paper handy. But we do almost always have our
phones with their very convenient camera function. So when you

(01:56):
need to remember something specific, take a picture of it.
A phone number, a schedule, a location, what someone is wearing.
When you use a phone to take a picture, you
have a built in reminder. I keep saying more and
more examples of how you can use this extra brain.

(02:17):
My Best of Both Worlds podcast co host Sarah tells
me that she uses the screenshot function on her phone
to remind herself of moments and podcasts that she wants
to follow up on. Maybe she's out for a walk
listening to something, she hears something cool and wants to
take a screenshot that reminds her both of the podcast
name and critically the time stamp, so she can go

(02:41):
re listen to that exact thing she wanted to act on.
You can even use the camera and video function of
your phone to remember things before you might need them,
for instance, in an emergency are you sure you're going
to remember what valuable things you own and exactly what
they look like. If you need to file an insurance claim,

(03:01):
take pictures and videos and then archived this file somewhere.
If you think your brain is a leaky bucket, now
just imagine what it will feel like after a fire
or flood or burglary. Taking these pictures ahead of time
is a gift to your potential future self at what

(03:21):
might be one of the lowest moments of your life.
A picture can even serve as a gentle reminder for
folks who might move things about how they could put
them back. If people rearrange the furniture in the conference
room frequently, maybe take a photo and then post this
photo of where things should go, so your next meeting

(03:44):
will start with another furniture moving party. There is no
guarantee people will take the picture into account, but at
least it's a nudge, and when you get things really right,
you also want a quick reminder. Gorgeous flower arrangement really
knocked it out of the park this year with the
holiday decorps. Take a photo. Stylist Lonnie and Lender, who

(04:09):
was a guest on Best of Both Worlds a few
years ago even advises that you put together great outfits
and photograph them so who can easily repeat them. Photos
let us keep track of how we want things to
look so we don't have to figure out how to
get them right every time. So the next time there's
something you want to remember, maybe you can let a

(04:31):
photo be your extra brain. Whether you use pictures to
reinforce your visual memory of things so you can replicate
them later, or to record information when you don't have
a pen and paper, handy, photos can be a great
way to keep track of things. Your brain only has
so much capacity, well, or at least mine only has

(04:53):
so much capacity. Let's preserve what we can for the
important things in the meantime. This is Laura, Thanks for listening,
and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,

(05:15):
I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod
that's b E the number four then breakfast p o D.
You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Podcast at i heeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast

(05:38):
is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from
my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. To get

(06:03):
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