Is Your Mind on Overload? by Ellen Martin
May 15, 2009
Are You on Overload?
Going through your day at a hundred miles per hour doesn’t leave much time for thought. When you are not thinking you are simply reacting to what happens around you. This anxiety causing cycle will cause you to feel as though you are losing your mind. When you feel yourself spiraling out of control, you must stop. Stop, take a deep breath, and think about what you are doing. Stop to really think about the pieces and parts. What is the next step you must take? Are you doing things in an efficient manner? How can you get control of the situation to avoid future anxiety-filled days?
I encourage my clients and students to do a “brain dump” at the beginning of each day. Get it all out of your head and down on paper. Write down everything that is occupying space in your head or causing you to worry. At this point you don’t have to categorize it or try to make it into some neat formatted list. You are literally dumping all of the “stuff” from your brain so that you can think more clearly. This will immediately help to calm the anxiety.
You can capture the information in a written list or use technology to help you. If you like using technology, here are a few options for you. Open a word document and start typing away! If you use Outlook, you can use the task feature to capture each of the to-do items in your head. You can also use a tool like OneNote to capture the information.
Once you have gotten everything out of your head you can organize the information into a usable format or you can just put the list aside. Sometimes just getting it out of your head is helpful and you don’t really need to do anything more with the information. Often once the brain dump is complete you will realize that you aren’t as overloaded as you felt. The information that you dumped is usually very valuable and can become an excellent task list. Now when you get started again, you will be working on purpose. If you get out of control again, you know that you can stop, re-group, and then get started again.
Ellen
Organizing Your Space. Simplifying Your Life.
www.organizationalexperts.com
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