How You Can Be Productive Just by Sorting Out Your Thoughts (in 3 Easy Steps)
It’s easy to feel overloaded by so many ideas for your projects, tasks, and roles, especially when you’re already in the middle of an important task.
This is because our minds are a lot like computes – in order to be more productive and focus all your attention and energy on the tasks you need to finish in that certain time period, you need to clear out your cache of “temporary” files and reboot.
Here are three simple steps you can start doing to be more productive:
- Choose the best time
You may not always have the energy when you wake up in the morning and before going to bed at night. But what’s important is that you do this twice a day to make sure you remember everything.
Do this when you are wide awake, and not groggy or sleepy. For instance, you could start doing this after you’ve taken a shower and had your coffee (before going to work), or when you have a few minutes at lunch.
- Write everything down
The one thing you need to do in order to de-clutter your mind is simple: just keep a record of your thoughts and the things you need to do.
There are all kinds of ways for doing this, from using the “Notes” app on your phone, or even typing it on your computer. If you don’t want to type it out, you can even record yourself talking and listen to it later as an audio log.
But this may not always work for you, in which case it’s completely okay to write them all down the old fashioned way. Being able to write things down using physical pen and paper lets you use muscle memory, and because you’re paying more attention to what you’re writing, there’s a good chance you can retain them better.
- Keep your journal/planner in hand
Now that you’ve written your thoughts and plans down, keep them with you all the time! This way, you’ll be able to glance at it any time and not forget anything you had written down.
It’s easy to keep them around as voice recordings on your phone or as a Word document on your laptop, but when you’re physically writing them down on paper, have a specific notebook for this and keep this with you as much as possible.
By making it a habit to write everything down, you not only allow yourself to clear your head and focus on your tasks and projects, but you also give yourself ideas that you can use in the future.