When it comes to memory, our brains are typically no better than an 8GB USB storage device.

In the modern world, information bombards us constantly. And if we rely on our 8GB capacity to memorize as much as possible, the only way to make it fit is to store it at a low resolution. When we come to review what we’ve learned, we’re dismayed to find only ‘blurred’ information and vague approximations of what was so clear when we experienced it

In the past the top priority for human brains was survival. Let’s leave the modern world of computers behind for a moment, and travel back in time to when the informational landscape was very different.  Put yourself in the prehistoric shoes of one of your early ancestors.The prehistoric environment was challenging and harsh. So for much of your time you’d have been motivated by basic survival – how to sustain your life (food, shelter, relationships); and how to deal with threats (predatory animals, weather conditions

In other words, ‘prehistoric-you’ would not have elevated memorization to be a primary goal, but would have prioritized processing information like thinking ‘this is a dangerous area’, ‘this is edible’. 

The more civilized we got, the more we needed to remember

It's Sunday evening but instead of relaxing with your family, you're sitting in front of your home computer. There are just a few emails you have to send out before the week starts, a couple of projects you want to complete in the quiet before the phone calls and urgent emails begin arriving the next morning. You're tired, and vaguely cranky to find yourself working on what's supposed to be a day of rest. But it needs to get done, so you push through.

If you're anything like me, this will sound all too familiar. The thing is, it's bad for your brain. A growing body of scientific evidence explains what many of us have learned from unpleasant experience: Push yourself through too many hours or days of work and your brain starts to push back. Ideas that once flowed easily dry up, and tasks that you should be able to perform quickly become excruciatingly difficult. If you're like me, at that point, you feel tempted to scold yourself to buckle down and work harder. That's completely counterproductive--you need to give your brain, and yourself, some rest.