About Steven AitchisonBefore we start
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Day 20 |Day 21 |Day 22 |Day 23 |Day 24 |Day 25 |Day 26 |Day 27 | Day 28
A few readers are now blogging about their experiences on the course, and it would be great to lend your support:
Stacy Claflin – Grow With Stacy
Marty BoneIdol – Living Life in Chapters
Stephen – New Life Starts Here
Read the interview I have done with Angela Artemis from Powered by Intuition
Read the interview I have done with Sandi Faviell from DevaCoaching
Watch an interview I made with Suzie Cheel on Mind Alchemy
Mind Alchemy Day 13
Welcome to Day 13 of Mind Alchemy
I originally called this module ‘Organize Your Life’, but I think a better title is ‘Clearing Your Mind’ as that is exactly what we are going to be doing today.
Today is going to be a relatively short piece as it is really about doing the exercise.
Typical scenrio
Nowadays we have so much stuff in our heads that it gets cluttered with all the things we have to do. I frequently get emails that are important, and I say in my head ‘That’s important, I need to reply to that as soon as I’ve done this’, I then go about my task and subsequently forget about the email. What happens is that my mind, or my subsconscious mind, tells me that I have something important to do and it clears a little pocket of energy in order to remind me that I have got an important email to reply to. I go to work and suddenly my mind receives a message in its inbox to tell me I forgot to reply to that email: ‘Shit, I’ll need to do that when I get home’. And that’s only 1 little task. My mind is full of these little, important tasks, and the pressure starts to build as I am forgetting things right, left and centre. I feel a certain amount of stress as I am sure I’ve forgotten to do other things.
It’s only when I dump everything from my mind onto paper that I feel a sense of deep relief, a huge weight has been lifted and I can relax again and get on with clearing all the important little things I have been meaning to do.
When you have done your first ‘dump your brain’ you shouldn’t really have to do it again, as you can write everything you need to do in a notebook as soon as you receive it. So, as soon as you get an email in that you will need to reply to, write it in your notebook or worksheet to do later on, only if you can’t deal with it just now. If something is literally going to take 60 seconds to do, do it there and then.
For now, get everything out of your brain and onto the worksheet or a piece of paper.
Clearing your mind
I am sure everyone knows how this feels. We’ve always got something else to do, some important job that our partner has asked us to do that we keep forgetting about. When we don’t do these little important tasks we are really saying; ‘okay that’s not terribly important in my life just now, but I know it’s important to you so I will get it done asap.’
Well, now it’s time to dump your brain onto paper and clear the clutter and stress from your mind.
Today’s exercise
Today we are going to get everything that we need to do and put it down on paper. Yes, it’s the old fashioned way of doing things, but it’s still a valuable way to get rid of mind stress.
Once you’ve dumped your tasks onto paper, it’s time to get those things done and out of your mind forever. Once you’ve completed them put a tick in the completed box. It’s amazing what that little tick can do for you psychologically.
Tomorrow
Tomorrow we will be having a catch up day, so you can catch up with any or all of the exercises so far.
Action follows a thought…
This course is about taking action, and to become pro active in changing your life. Take time to do this exercise and really think about it throughout the day. You don’t need to wait until tomorrow to take steps to improve your ‘Wheel of Life’, but with the support and encouragement from all the members we can help each other and support each other, but ultimately ‘you have to bring something to the table!’
Your thoughts
As always it’s good to talk about your experiences and share it with the rest of the members of the course, so let us know how this exercise went for you and if you gained any insights or had any revelations about yourself or your life.
You can share your thoughts at Mind Alchemy Facebook Group
You can Tweet using the hashtag #MindAlchemy
Or of course you can leave a comment below
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Cool.
I’ve just started it last night and here we go:)
Can you believe it?.:)
Thanks a lot
D
Hope you get on okay with this one Dilana.
Though paper and pen is best, I would also recommend a simple online app. Teuxdeux comes to mind. I use it at the end of the day. But during the day, I have a sheet of paper next to my desk that I use to scribble random to-dos.
Hi Saikat, I’ve tried the online ones as well, the only trouble is i always revert back to a notepad as i can carry it with me everywhere. It’s also good for capturing ideas.
This is something I have been doing for some while (however, not about emails as such). For about 4 years I keep an A3 size lined note book that I call “Marty’s Log”. (There’s no star date on it!) I’m on about book 5 now. Pretty much everything goes down in it. Blog drafts, phone numbers, scribbles, notes from meetings, song lyrics, to do lists, email addresses, real addresses etc….
At work, this goes alongside my diary which is work specific and a bit tidier. My note book is just useful to recall information that would otherwise be lost. My memory is good as good as I’d like it to be so I make use of this tool to assist me.
The other point is, by writing something down I nearly always don’t need to refer to it because by the very action or writing, I mostly remember it anyway. It simply takes away the anxiety. Great module!
Marty recently posted..Inspirational songs
Hi Marty, you’ve made a great point about remembering something after you have written it down. there’s a magical thing happens when it is written down and I believe it’s becasue we are using more of our senses when we write something down on paper i.e. sight, hearing, and touch.
I’m just adding this to update my new blog website link!
Marty recently posted..Letting go your Outcomes – The pinball effect
Thanks for the link Marty
I like it too Marty! I’ve been storing everything in my head for years. This year I decided to change things and actually purchased a diary. I’m writing to dos in it with notes, addresses and more notes on the day after the event. I’m a lot more relaxed for doing it – and not forgetting anything either!
Sue recently posted..Random Acts of Kindness
Great stuff Sue, I really do believe in the power of the pen
Steve,
This is such an effective way to clear our minds. I’m a huge list maker and journal writer. It helps me to know I’m not going to be pestered by thoughts of what I might have forgotten to do that day. I stay focused on the present and the task at hand. Thank you for sharing this technique with us!
Angela Artemis/Powered by Intuition recently posted..In Praise of The Blogging Black-Out
Hi Angela, thank you for your input, always helpful. I am not a journal writer, but I know a lot of readers benefit from journal writing.
I downloaded your exercise. Thanks for the convenient list you helped me make. I just did one other thing to it. I added a column for importance and another for urgency. That way I could see what was most urgent and important so those could make it to the top of the list. It’s a great thing I try to do every week.
Bryce Christiansen recently posted..How to Score Well On a DISC Assessment
HI Bryce, thanks for the feedback, I might add the columns if it is going to help others out as well.
This is a great exercise to clean the distractions in our minds and help us to focus on things that needs to be done, so from now on I will put it on paper first to find the deep sense of relief and this will be my secret weapon to stay focused.
Hi Engilbert, glad you enjoyed working on this one.
This one could take me a while. I think I have do-it-nows that I have not done saved up for months. (OK years, but I figure some of them are no longer viable.) I do write many things down but have not been doing it in a collected fashion. So organizing and prioritizing all my scraps and bits of paper will take an hour or so. One thing I do NOT have to add to the list is buy a notebook. I am an office supplies geek and have pens and notebook available.
I agree that the act of writing it down does keep it closer to my active conscious mind, even if on the fringe.
I will need to focus for a few days to make it become habit and to not set the notebook down and forget it.
Great article, these are very great lessons which will help people develop their minds.