Writing down your thoughts can make them visible, and easier to work with while you’re trying to keep them all in mind.
The challenge is: if you write pages of stuff, you overwhelm your brain and you can no longer see the wood for the trees. You create TMI – too much information.
The solution is to write your thoughts in short units. That makes them easy to scan. There is good science to support this. When you’re thinking about an array of ideas, you use your working memory (this is short-term memory plus various functions that sort, connect and visualize). The working memory is a bit like the RAM in your computer. It’s way smaller than the “hard drive” – your long-term memory. Your working memory has a preference for short bits of information. This has been tested: the ideal length of a “thought” is around seven digits, six letters, or five words.
Interestingly, Google searches are usually one word long, except in English-speaking countries, which divide between one and two words).
When you list your thoughts in very short phrases, you support your working memory. You can quickly scan up and down, and hold little pieces in mind while you find patterns or trigger new ideas.
To put it another way, if you want to connect the dots, make sure you’re using dots, not splurges!