Introduction Today I want to write about note-taking. I've always had this sense that I take notes in order to forget things. Rather than trying to retain information, I prefer to just move it into a note-taking app and get it out of my head. It makes me feel lighter — and that's been my style for a long time. It was something I did purely on instinct, but recently I came across a concept called "cognitive offloading," and it made me think — maybe my instinct wasn't so off after all. Writing this one down as a note to myself. What Is Cognitive Offloading? Cognitive offloading refers to the act of delegating part of our memory or thinking to external tools, reducing the load on the brain. A 2011 study by psychologist Betsy Sparrow and her colleagues found that when people know they can look something up on Google later, they tend to remember where to find the information rather than the information itself.…