Leaders Have a Process to Eliminate Mental Clutter

When you have a lot of projects running at the same time, it can be very easy for your mind to get all cluttered up with different ideas that you want to implement. Before you know it, you could be sitting there daydreaming about all kinds of different things that you want to do or think more about later.

Instead of sitting there overwhelmed with a lot on your mind, you should have a process to get all of those ideas out so that you can focus on whatever you’re doing at that time. Many people find that writing their ideas out is the most helpful way to clear out their mind.

Whether it be on a computer or on a notepad, writing out all of these ideas lets you clear your mind of them so you don’t have to worry about forgetting them. Then, you can get back to work at that time and continue thinking about those ideas later on.

Writing these ideas out also helps because you’re able to keep adding on to them and compare them to other ideas you have that might be similar. From there, you can simply eliminate any ideas that you don’t think will really hold up, and narrow it down to the good ones that you want to keep expanding upon.

Not every idea that you have in your head sounds as good when you put it down on paper. If you sit there all day with all kinds of ideas running through your head, you’re going to run into some problems.

First, you’ll be unable to focus well on whatever work you’re actually doing, meaning you’ll either not be paying attention and will mess up something, or you’ll be working slowly.

Secondly, you run the risk of forgetting one of your good ideas and may be unable to remember it again when you need it. You can dedicate an entire notebook or a separate document on your computer just for ideas and expanding on ideas.

You may want to keep it separated from your actual plans so that you don’t start doing something that’s still a work in progress. Once an idea is finalized, you can add it into your plans quickly and easily, giving yourself more guidance on how to achieve your goals. Having these kinds of thoughts spring up is a good thing, but you need to manage them appropriately.