Hey stranger,

In this episode, I explain a 2-min evening routine that programs my brain to solve problems while I sleep.

If you prefer watching, you can find the YouTube video here. If reading is your thing, then enjoy the transcript below.

Welcome to The Daily Recall show. I'm your host, Vasili.

Today, I will explain a simple trick that can help you start solving problems while you sleep.

A few years ago I’ve discovered the idea of getting things done; this task management methodology. It did wonders to me.

The most important idea from getting things down is called capturing. Whenever you have something on your mind, you just write it down. This creates a representation of your thought in the real world. And it also triggers your brain to stop thinking about this thing because it knows that it's stored somewhere safe. So whenever you write a thing down, it gets out of your working memory. It's called the Zeigarnik effect.

A few weeks back, I thought: "If writing the thing down actually gets it off my mind, then what would be the opposite? What would be the process that gets the thing to my mind?" Well, that's quite easy. Not writing the thing down, right? So my first idea was to take the Zeigarnik effect and invert it to direct my attention to some specific problems.

But then I thought I could combine it with focused mode switch and program my sleep time so that I get to think about things that I really want to think of instead of those weird dreams. The problem with this programming turned out to be that I have a lot of things that I’m thinking about all the time. So not writing the thing down was not enough; I needed to focus myself somehow on this specific idea I want to think about before I plunge into sleep.

Here's what I’ve come up with.

Whenever you are in your bed and you feel like you are about to plunge into sleep, pull out your phone or a piece of paper where there’s a thing written down that you want to think of while you sleep. It might be a problem that you're looking for a solution for. Anything. And all you need to do is to look at this thing and you need to focus your attention on this object for a few minutes and proactively think about it. That's how you enter the focused mode.

And after a few minutes, you put the thing away and you fall asleep.

It works like magic. I started seeing dreams that are related to the thing that you I presented myself with before falling asleep. Thomas Edison, the guy who invented the light bulb and a bunch of other things, he actually did the same thing. But he did it a bit differently; during the day and with metal balls in his hand while chilling at his recliner.

But it worked for him, it worked for me, and it will work for you. Because when you plunge into sleep, you automatically drop the focused mode and you get access to this wide area of knowledge in your head. And that's how you get to connect things together. That's how the how you get to see the forest behind the trees.

Thanks for reading! I hope you try this out and I hope it will work well for you.

Take care and enjoy your weekend.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

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