This test is hard because the numbers you need to repeat back will keep changing. You need to hold all the current numbers in your head, without forgetting any of them.People who can hold more numbers in their heads, have higher working memories and are often more intelligent generally. Being able to keep more things in mind at the same time is a big part of what makes some people smarter than others.

WM Capacity And Intelligence Are Positively Correlated

Imagine if you could take a pill that would double your intelligence. What would that feel like?You’d be able to keep more thoughts in your head. You could draw new connections between ideas. You could solve problems you’ve been stuck on for years.Such a pill may not exist, but there already is a cognitive enhancing tool, and it doesn’t require brain-altering drugs.

What If Thoughts Came But Didn’t Go?

Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers.

First, by jotting down your thoughts on paper, you can hold more ideas than you could in your limited working memory.This means you can more easily work through thoughts that have several parts which are difficult to keep in mind simultaneously.

When We Write Our Thoughts, We Can Hold More Of Them

I write primarily to find out what I’ve been thinking, and I don’t know until I write it .

3. Confusions are cleared up by writing down explanations.One of the most popular studying tactics is the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrNqSLPaZLc">Feynman Technique </a>. This technique boils down to using writing to make it easier to understand hard problems in math, science and other subjects.Often, simply the act of writing down an explanation will resolve confusions. This is because the different components of the ideas are too large and numerous to stitch together into a completed understanding. Writing it down solves this capacity constraint and allows you to piece together a completed idea.

How to Start Thinking Better

James Clear, a bestselling author, once said that he doesn’t write to record his thoughts, but to figure out what he even thinks about a topic.Think about it: without writing, it isn’t simply that we would have tons of unrecorded ideas, bumping around in our skull, but that those ideas wouldn’t exist. They are created by the act of writing, much more so than they are being recorded.If you don’t write regularly, the quality of your thinking suffers. Writing gives you access to an external brain, sharpens your ideas and makes your thoughts smarter.

Writing Doesn’t Record Your Thoughts, It Is Your Thinking

Cognitive scientists believe that working memory is one of the major components of intelligence. Working memory (WM) is like the RAM for your mind. It consists of all the things you’re keeping in mind simultaneously.A common test of working memory is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-back">n-back task</a>. In this test, experimenters will repeat a string of digits and then, at a random point, ask you to recall the input from n steps previously.

Intelligence, Our RAM And The n-Back Task

2. Vexing problems should start with paper and pen.Are you struggling with an important problem in life or work? Your first instinct should be to get a piece of paper and start writing it down. Jot down all the elements of the problem, including all your different ideas for a solution.Many problems which feel overwhelming are suddenly simplified once you write them down.

There’s a few ways you can improving your thinking with writing:1. Have a written meeting, before your face-to-face one. Are you going to discuss something with colleagues? Pretend the meeting isn’t happening and that you need to communicate your plans entirely via email. Draft up an email with your thoughts.It doesn’t matter whether you send the email or not. Having thought through your ideas clearly, you’ll be able to communicate them intelligently when the meeting comes.

Second, writing allows editing.If you write down an idea, then later notice a contradiction further down the page, you can go back and edit it. Editing mentally quickly becomes exhausting as, like in the n-back task, the old information interferes with the new.

When We Write Our Thoughts, We Can Refine Them

While writing may not literally increase your working memory, many cognitive scientists now believe that such external representations may form important parts of our cognition. This externalized cognition extends the space of thinking and literally makes us smarter, even if our brains are just the same as before.Just as writing helps with numerical and mnemonic tasks, it can help you think more clearly about your life problems as well.

Paper As An Extension Of Your Mind

Now consider that, if one change to the test were made, performance would become almost perfect, even if the n-back test was asking for the last one hundred or ten thousand digits. That change? Allowing participants to write down the numbers as they hear them. Now reciting off huge lists of numbers is trivial, no matter the length.

So, Don’t Hold That ThoughtWrite It Down. 

Third, writing allows for longer thoughts.Have you ever had a conversation where, as you were listening, you forgot the point you were eager to make? Ideas bubble up and pop all the time in our minds, it’s only with writing that you can capture it.

When We Write Our Thoughts, We Can Capture Them

It is often difficult to establish what we think before we have put it down in words. In many cases, we simply do not know what we want to say until we have tried to say it. After all, writing is thinking on paper, isn’t it?

Being able to think clearly is not easy. Working memory is limited, making thinking harder. Luckily, there's a tool to expand and improve your thinking.

KEVIN KELLY

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