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7. In the beginning, you may not know what to write so simply write – “I do not know what to write”. You may write this out a few times but at some
point, you will start to write at the same speed as you are thinking.
8. Once you have completed the time, read through what you have written. The majority of what is on your page might mean nothing, however, there
will be important learnings that stand out – use a different colour pen to circle or highlight those.
9. Write down the top 3 to 5 learnings. If they are actionable, you might even have written the solutions. Take note – and act!
10. Do this every 3 to 6 months.

Your Mind – The Human ‘Hard Drive’

The capacity to remember the past is an integral part of human existence. Without it, you would not be able to drive to work, hold a meaningful conversation
with your family, read a book or prepare a meal. Understanding what memory is and how it works is a fundamental goal of modern neuroscience.

Many thousands of years before the advent of computers, Plato famously compared our memory to one of its predecessors, a wax tablet that is blank at birth
and slowly takes on the impression of the events from our life. Only in the pas hundred years have psychologists developed techniques to study our
recollections of the past. What is clear is that the human memory is a lot more complicated than Plato had imagined.

The human brain and the mind within it are the most complicated yet incredible objects in the known universe. How the brain and mind function together is a
fascinating area of neuroscience filling many books on the subject so we will not delve too deeply here. That’s for later chapters in a later book.

A baby’s brain development is a complex process that continues throughout pregnancy. At just six weeks, the embryo’s brain and nervous system begin to
develop, although the complex parts of the brain continue to grow and develop through the end of pregnancy, with development ending around the age of 25.

The brain begins with the neural tube, formed in the first month of the embryo’s growth. The neural tube closes around week 6 or 7, at which point the brain
separates into three parts: front brain, midbrain, and hindbrain. These three parts will eventually develop into the specialized parts of the brain, and the
cerebrum will fold into the left and right halves of the brain.

From the time the neural tube closes, around week 7, the brain will grow at a rate of 250,000 neurons per minute for the next 21 weeks. Ultrasounds can
reveal the embryo moving as early as 6 weeks after conception (or 8 pregnancy weeks), detecting the electrical impulses that govern movement and
indicating that the brain is beginning to function. The 1st trimester lasts from the moment of conception and up to 13 weeks. During the first trimester, the
brain develops rapidly and makes up nearly half of the fetus’s weight. For comparison, by the time a baby is born, the brain is only 10 percent of their body
weight. In the first trimester, the brain will grow millions of neurons, which connect across synapses to direct movement and growth.

The communication between neurons is what helps the fetus learn to move, although during the first trimester mother probably won’t feel any movement.
In the second trimester, the fetal brain begins to direct the compression of the chest muscles and movement of the diaphragm. These are kind of like practice Page210
breaths and are controlled by the brain stem. Sucking and swallowing begin around week 16, and by week 21, the fetus can swallow amniotic fluid.