The Function Of Tools

What is a tool?  To me it's something that you can use to help make what you are doing:

• Possible
• Easier to make/create
• Better Quality

A tool can be just about anything.  A hammer.  A software program.  A checklist.  A system.  

Tools can also be used for functions that they were not designed for.  How many times have you used a butter knife as a screwdriver?  Maybe a pocket knife as a prybar.  A wordprocessor as a presentation program?  A credit card as a car window snow scraper?

Tools can be used and misused in a variety of ways we can only imagine.  

But in most cases, it is best to use a tool that was designed for the function we want to perform.  It's not optimal to drive a nail into wood with a travel coffee mug. It's silly to shovel snow with a serving spoon.  Both will work, but far from optimally.   

What tools do you use in your life?

Perhaps it's time to take an inventory of your tools and see if you have the right ones for the jobs that you are performing.

Could the wrong tools be holding you back from your best work?

If so...it's time to obtain and use the best tool(s) for the job(s) you do.

Know when to stop the input...and start the thinking...

The process of learning, thinking, doing and enjoying is not just one process.  It is several different processes and skills that are linked together.  Each skill provides a different element of the entire process of conversion of a new learned fact, into a thought, action, which then results in a benefit of outcome.

Our brains are only capable of a finite ability to deal with facts, or "inputs"  at one time.  For some people it might be a large number of facts; for others, it might be a smaller number.  That number may change over our lifetime based.  It certainly will change with practice, improving with greater use.

Is it better to keep providing input that will be lost or forgotten?  Or stop the input and really process (i.e. think) about the inputs and turn them into lessons, concepts and memories?

Once we "hit" our limit of inputs for a period of time, our brain needs time to digest those new ideas.  It needs to process them, organize them and file them into the "storage cabinet" in our brains for future use. After that point, we may be wasting our time by stuffing in more inputs, only to crowd out the earlier ones.  Perhaps at those times, we are better to stop further input process and start the thinking process... 

We all can understand our own limits on "inputs" if we pay attention to what we are thinkin...