I was talking to a fellow business owner the other day and I asked her what her biggest struggle was.
This is what she said:
“Mental drainage is real. There’s so much to do. When I’m sitting with my morning coffee I’m thinking about all the things and immediately get overwhelmed. Then I just feel tired already because I’m exhausted just thinking about all the things.”
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I am sure you can relate to this.
I know I can.
The overwhelm comes when we notice all the things on our to-do list and we think the thought, “I HAVE to get all this done, but my life is too busy to be organized.”
Que the overwhelm and the anxiety.
Que being scattered.
Que the thoughts spiraling into the worst-case scenario.
The actions taken from overwhelm is that we jump around from task to task never really fully completing anything.
Or, we just stay stuck in looping thoughts accomplishing nothing.
The result? Your to-do list doesn’t get done.
Goals aren’t reached.
The truth is, when your mind isn’t organized, your life won’t be organized.
You can’t just keep everything in your head.
Your brain isn’t a storage unit, it’s a processor.
Since it’s not a storage unit, you loop on thoughts so that they are not forgotten because if you forget to do something, then that could mean danger for you.
Good news.
Nothing has gone wrong. Your brain is working exactly as it was created to work.
So take a deep breath right now knowing that there isn’t anything to be “fixed.”
Thinking is hard work it takes a lot of energy and your brain just wants to protect you from wasted energy and the possibility that forgetting something might mean death.
You’re not in danger of death from not getting your to-do list done but your brain doesn’t know that.
Our minds can only focus on one thing at a time efficiently, so YOU have to use the higher functioning parts of your brain to direct those thoughts.
The #1 thing you can do to direct your brain is to first get those thoughts out of your head.
I call this a thought download (not my idea).
The purpose of a thought download is to put everything that is in your brain outside of you so that you can see it.
You’re writing down all the things your brain offers you.
If you don’t write them down, your brain will continue to offer them to you and those thoughts that are offered up will sabotage the very plans you have set.
This is how it’s done:
- Set your timer for 5-10 minutes.
- Grab a piece of paper and pen and just write. Write about what you need to do now, or in the future. The page could be filled with random thoughts, thoughts about current events, or what you want to do with your life. It doesn’t matter. The thoughts don’t have to be true, clear, or profound.
- Write with no judgment or thought of how these things will be accomplished.
- Don’t edit what you write.
- When the timer goes off, take a pause and revisit what you wrote.
- Pick one thing to do today, just ONE.
- OR, answer one of the questions that you asked yourself.
Maybe your thought is, “I don’t have time to do a thought download.”
Consider this:
- How much time are you wasting on looping thoughts and not accomplishing what you wanted to accomplish?
- How much mental energy are you using on the looping thoughts of what you need to do?
- How much time are you wasting jumping from task to task because you “have so much to do?”
The time wasted being stuck and the mental energy used on looping thoughts could be directed to productively doing a thought download that will move you forward in your life.
This strategy is an intentional practice, but it doesn’t take a lot of time. Ten to 12 minutes three to five days a week is all that is needed for measurable results.
The next step would be to calendar the things you need to do and keep your commitments to yourself.
You have to learn to trust yourself that you will follow through.
Take this first step, though of doing a thought download.
Give the thought download a try and see how it goes for you.
This is not a one and done thing. You may need to do them multiple times. The more you do it, the more you become aware of what has been running in your mind the whole time.