海角大神

10. Do a mind sweep.

Hot on the heels of the ongoing discussion of , I鈥檓 going to suggest a good old fashioned 鈥渕ind sweep鈥� as a brilliant way to get your financial and personal house in order to finish out the year.

What鈥檚 a 鈥淢ind Sweep鈥�?
Simply put, a 鈥渕ind sweep鈥� is a collection in one external place of all of the ongoing concerns in your life. All of the things you鈥檙e thinking about, trying to remember, or need to do that are cluttering up your mind are a bigger distraction than you think, and simply getting them out of your head can make a big difference.

Why is it such a big distraction?

For starters, think about how your mind works when you鈥檙e focused on a task. How often does a stray thought pop into your head? Something you need to do. An appointment you need to remember. Some fact that you鈥檝e been thinking about lately. These little thoughts break your concentration, and that causes both the task at hand to take longer and the task at hand to get finished with a little less quality. Has your mind ever wandered to something else and suddenly you鈥檙e seeing the task in front of you descending into disaster (dinner, for instance)?

More importantly, doing this makes you into a more reliable person. You鈥檙e able to deal with the many personal and professional things people expect from you and you live up to that standard 鈥� and beyond. You produce quality work and don鈥檛 let people down.

One of my own examples of a 鈥渇orgotten鈥� thing, for example, tends to be bills, mostly because many of them are billed electronically and some of them don鈥檛 let me know that they鈥檙e due. Thus, it鈥檚 up to me to remember them.

Doing a Mind Sweep
So, how do you actually go about this?

I suggest having a good chunk of time set aside before even starting. This is a perfect activity for a winter weekend day where you don鈥檛 have much going on.

I would also suggest having some sort of tool upon which you can freely write. This might be a laptop or it might be a pad of paper and a pencil.

The first step is to simply sit down and do a complete brain dump. Just sit there and let your mind wander through everything in your life and write down everything that concerns you, that you鈥檙e trying to remember, that you鈥檙e working through. All of that stuff that pops up and distracts you needs to go down on paper (or into your text editor). Just keep going with it until you feel like there鈥檚 nothing else.

When you鈥檙e done with that (it usually takes me about an hour), go through your house and visit each room. See if anything else pops into your head as you look around. Check your email. Think about your job and the stuff you need to get done there. Go through your mail.

Get it all out of your head and onto paper. Don鈥檛 worry about order. Don鈥檛 worry about filtering anything. Don鈥檛 worry about duplicating stuff. Just get it all out.

Following Through
You鈥檒l find that the list is tremendously long when you鈥檙e done. The next step, of course, is to start dealing with all of that stuff.

Go through every item on the list and ask yourself if you can do something that takes care of the problem in the next five minutes. You鈥檒l be shocked how many of the things actually will disappear in this way.

If you can鈥檛 deal with it that quickly, figure out what needs to be done with it. You鈥檙e likely going to be placing stuff into several separate places. Here are the key ones I use.

Trash If I look at something and, after thinking about it clearly, realize it鈥檚 not really important (like old magazines, etc.), I trash it, no questions asked. If I鈥檓 never going to look at it again, why keep it?

Calendar If I have an appointment that needs to be kept on some certain date, I add it to my calendar and forget about it.

To-do list If it鈥檚 something bigger that needs to get done, I think about it for a bit, then try to transform it into something very clear that I can do without thinking too much about it. That item goes on my to-do list.

Projects If it鈥檚 something so big I won鈥檛 be able to get it done in one shot, I add it to my 鈥減rojects鈥� list. When I鈥檓 done dealing with all of this stuff and have it in the right places, I go through all of my projects and ask myself what the first concrete thing I can do to move this forward is, and I add that single thing to my to-do list.

Reference If it鈥檚 something I鈥檒l need to have at some future date, I file it in my filing cabinet. Don鈥檛 worry if you don鈥檛 have a filing system 鈥� just start a central place for storing such documents.

When I鈥檓 done with all of this 鈥� and it all takes a good day and a half 鈥� I have a healthy to-do list, a project list, and, most importantly, a clear mind.

At this point, I find that when I sit down to work on something, I鈥檓 not nearly as distracted by stray thoughts as I once was. This enables me to get things done substantially faster than before because my concentration isn鈥檛 broken nearly as often. Thus, I can get through my to-do list substantially faster than before and make up that time 鈥渓ost鈥� on the brain dump very quickly. After that鈥� it鈥檚 all a time profit.

Spend this weekend doing your own mind sweep. You鈥檒l find it helps you in many ways, often unexpected ones.

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