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Train Your Brain to Think More Clearly
Simplify your business writing
If you find yourself writing or reading long, complex sentences at work, edit and reedit them so that they express the gist in fewer words.
Do this repeatedly and over time you'll automatically accustom your brain to shorter, clearer wordings.
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Train yourself to think
The words you habitually use when you're thinking (and then expressing those thoughts) mold how you see the world. For example, people who habitually think (and speak and write) the word "hate" tend to find an ever-increasing number of things to hate.
When you train yourself to speak and write using clearly defined words arranged into concise sentences, you're training your brain to think more clearly.
Mentally edit out fuzzy buzzwords
While most business buzzwords are simply annoying (like saying "utilize" rather than "use"), some are so fuzzy and vague that they automatically lead to confused thinking.
Mentally editing out the fuzzy, vague buzzwords when you are talking, speaking, listening, or reading gradually clears your mind of the confusion they create, thereby making you smarter.
Play the "one syllable" game
The concept is simple: Try to communicate business ideas using words of only one syllable.
This exercise trains your brain to use smaller, easier-to-understand words rather than complex ones.
Since complex words tend to "complexify" your thoughts (and your expression of them), habitually using common words leads toward clearer thinking.
SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
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Key Ideas
“Be A Strong Writer”
This is one of the first pieces of advice people give to those seeking remote work.
When you work remotely, a few misplaced words can become an occupational hazard. Every w...
Accessible Language
- Use of caps lock, emojis, italics and tildes (~) to make your language flowery, fun and human is a great idea for remote working. You can also use memes and gif images, provided they are not offensive to anyone.
- Robot speak is not a good way to freely collaborate with your remote peers. Use simple words, and keep it on the casual side, skipping the inaccessible and stilted language. You can also opt for contractions like writing isn’t instead of is not.
Be Clear And Concise
- Do not obscure your message by words that are there to decorate the sentence and make it sound wordy while camouflaging what you mean.
- Make good use of qualifiers ("I think, In my opinion") while not coming across as a perpetually confused person. Don’t use qualifiers while making a strong point.
- While writing documentation, it is prudent to avoid jargon and acronyms.
- Use complete words and sentences. Shortcuts and acronyms block any actual communication, acting as roadblocks. On the same lines, avoid cliches, idioms and any idiotic sounding phrase that catches the ear well but doesn’t really do any good to anyone.
- Remote working is often on a global scale, and certain expressions will not be understood by some participants, or worse, will be misunderstood.
- Your words and tone should be tailored according to your audience. The words are different when you are writing to a client, and when you are in a small group chat with your peers. More people in chat also means adopting a polished, professional tone.
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How you speak to yourself
It directly influences how you experience things in life.
Our words play an important part in shaping our existence, so if your internal self-talk is negative, your external exper...
Words and emotions
The words we attach to our experience become our experience.
Words have a biochemical effect on the body. For example, if you use a word like “devastated,” you’re going to produce a very different biochemical effect than if you say, “I’m a bit disappointed.”
Start with a small shift
Replace just one word that will transform the way you experience something “negative.” This is how you create a choice instead of a habitual reaction.
These small changes in your vocabulary give you the power to change your experiences in life by lowering the intensity of negative emotions to the point where they no longer control you.
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Key Ideas
Using too much jargon
When you constantly take over normal words and use them in odd ways to make them sound "businessy", people will most likely roll their eyes.
Stick to using words as they're defined ...
Clichés
Unoriginal expressions used so frequently that they've actually lost meaning like "out-of-the-box thinking" could reveal a lack of respect for the listener.
Avoid metaphors completely or use original ones. If that's too hard, tweak the wording of clichés to make them less cliché-ish.
Prolixity
Using big, impressive sounding words rather than smaller, common ones can leave listeners with the impression that you're pompous and pretentious.
The fix, in this case, is a big dose of humility.
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