Do you feel like your brain is in serious overdrive and like there is so much going on in it? It is like there is a stream of clutter occupying your mental space, you do not have the time to really do some isolated and constructive thinking because so much seems to be going on in it.
If your answer is yes then you need to get rid of all that non-essential mental baggage – what are these baggage?
Our brain can only handle 3 or 4 chunks of information at a time. That often is not enough to handle the complexity of our day. We can use chunking to declutter our mind if we take the numerous pieces of information and cluster them into 3 parts.
How to practice chunking:
- Write the major issue you are trying to address.
- Capture the thoughts by writing one each on a sticky note
- Cluster them into themes of 3 or 4 categories
How do we make the most of the time each day and get more done with less stress and more brilliance? It involves single tasking as opposed to multi-tasking. We are faster and more productive when we take one task at a time. Research shows that a task that requires conscious attention tends to be slowed down 30% when we multitask along with it, and we will have 2 to 4 times more errors with that task. It also causes more stress because our brain can only do one thing at a time. We are highly inefficient when we try to do multiple things at a time.
How to handle this
- Build up a to-do list or a schedule with priority and important task placed at the beginning of the day
- Decide on one task that you focus on per day and decide a block of time for the day for that.
- Start small with a small task that will take about 5 to 15 minutes
- Turn off notifications on your phone at that time while you are focusing on that task.
- Inform those who may need your attention at that time that you will be unavailable for a few hours.
- See that task through to the end before you move on to the next.
- Remember to take a break intermittently between tasks – even if it is 3-5 minutes.
OVERCOMING OVERWHELM
We do not want our minds to be clustered with so many things as this results in overwhelm. We can handle that by applying a method of journal dumping. This is a method of focused planning where we can sit for 10 to 15 minutes and write down all the things that we need to do In a week or a day in a journal daily.
You can pull it out of your brain and give that responsibility of holding it to your journal. That helps you to zoom out of that feeling of overwhelm, you look at your day or week as whole to see where you are and where you want to be. It helps you be more focused and precise on what you want to accomplish.
You need to start small if this is new to you. Build it as a habit, do it for one month and use that as a springboard to help you live more intentionally. When you see some success, you will gradually eliminate overwhelm and stress from your daily routine.
Some additional tips :
- Know your priorities
- Identify your Top three tasks for the day
- Map out your time to match your priority
- Be realistic on what you can do in a day
- Do not make any room for last squeeze unless an emergency