"Learn to Use Collections to Boost Your Output Efficiency by a Hundredfold"

This article is the 104th original piece by Lu Canwei.

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How to Make Good Use of Favorites

The first thing we need to do is to not use favorites.

The Essence of Favorites

I remember a few years ago, I often went to Thailand. Every time I returned home, I had to go to Big-C (a supermarket in Thailand, similar to Walmart), and I would buy a lot of various seasonings. However, after a year, I hardly made any Thai dishes, and they just occupied space in my kitchen cabinets.

Fortunately, in the digital age, we don’t have this kind of trouble when facing information. We collect good articles, interesting videos, beautiful music, and e-books recommended by friends. We are constantly collecting all kinds of information.

In a previous article I wrote about tools, the number of favorites was particularly high, but I don’t know how many people actually opened them again. We all have a cognitive illusion, thinking that after collecting something, we will find time to open and learn it later.

Just like my weight, even though I have collected many fitness videos, I still remain “steady.”

When I see something I consider “useful,” I will add it to my favorites. Before adding it, I think I might use it in the future, always believing that my future self will be a better version. But in fact, at the moment of adding, the brain thinks the matter is already settled, and we won’t open Pandora’s box again.

In "Thinking, Fast and Slow," there is a saying:

So the essence of favorites is to let us see a future self who is diligent and hardworking in learning, experiencing a moment of cerebral climax at the moment of collection, saying to ourselves how great our future self will be.

Indexing Thinking

When faced with a large amount of information, what we need to do is not to collect it, but to store it, establishing our knowledge database. Imagine we create an endless spreadsheet filled with the knowledge we have collected; then we wouldn’t need to search for related knowledge online but could find what we want in the already filtered large spreadsheet.

As our data increases, doesn’t it become slower to find? At this point, we need to establish an index for the content. We need to extract keywords from the content and assign them to corresponding categories, allowing us to filter first based on relevant categories and then search.

For example, I have a category called “Jokes That Make Me Happy,” where I have collected many images and texts that can instantly uplift my mood when I feel down. For instance, the image below fills me with strength when I feel worthless.

I see many people like to use an indexing method called “Dao Fa Shu Qi.” Here’s how I understand it:

Dao

This refers to core ideas, principles, and essential laws.

For example, the previous segment explains why not eating will lead to starvation; this content belongs to Dao because it explains the essential laws of our human body.

Fa

This refers to laws, regulations, and systems.

The previous segment explains what cats can eat and what they cannot; this content belongs to regulations.

Shu

Methods and techniques that can react and make choices based on Dao, guided by “Dao.”

For instance, I have been trying to lose weight recently, so I have been eating chicken breast. How to cook chicken breast falls under Shu, as it provides us with a method and technique.

Qi

This refers to tools.

For chicken breast, we can fry it, bake it, or boil it. The frying pan we use for frying, the pot we use for boiling, and the oven we use for baking all belong to the category of Qi.

Finally

Information is like money; it only has value when it circulates. So don’t just collect; quickly establish your knowledge base, and when you output, find relevant information from your vast collection, rather than fishing for a needle in the ocean.

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