Wednesday, January 16, 2013

8 Ways to Organize Your Brain



In this social media age, when we’re bombarded with one distraction after another, it’s imperative to step back every so often to clean out the clutter we’ve accumulated like ravaging, time-sucking dust bunnies inside our brains.

Does your brain need an organization overhaul?

Stop Being So Polite to Distractions
Welcome, Facebook, here’s all my time. Do with it what you will.

Oh, it’s you, come on in TV show that will extinguish that spark trying desperately to ignite.

Hello, rambling neighbor, yes I’ll engage in forty meaningless minutes of non-conversation as I listen to your gossip about your mother’s uncle. Sure, why not.

Downsize the Worry Quadrant
“But what if,” you’ve been moved to the cerebral office with no windows, no computer, and minimal interaction with coworkers. Oh, and lights out all day. Saving energy.

Don’t Starve Creativity
Example of starving creativity: Glimmering inspirational idea that scurries to the corner whenever I open the door and light streams in full of hope and promise, no soup for you.

Take out the Trash
Negative self-talk, haunting lies from the past, discouraging phrases stuck between lobe one and lobe two—be gone!

Place Priority Items on the Highest Cranial Shelf
Assess what you value most and evaluate whether you’re dolling out enough time and resources to these top priorities. Make it so you can see them at all times—visual reminder.

Goal-Set a Cerebral Table
Establish attainable, focused tasks you’d like to accomplish. Write them in chalk on the canvas of your noggin’. Check in from time to time to evaluate if your centerpiece is the focal point of all you’ve set on the table.

Hang an Encouraging Sign (a mantra if you will) on the Strongest Sensory Point
We all need regular reminders of what’s important. If your reminder is imprinted on an impressionable sensory receptor—imagine the possibilities!

Trade Multi-tasked Mindjumper Mentality for Fully Focused Engaged Experiencer
One of my favorite lines from Dead Poets Society is when Robin Williams quotes Thoreau with wanting to “suck the marrow out of life.” We can do this, we can suck the marrow out of life or we can sip, sip, sip never ingesting the deep goodness that only comes from full engagement. Make your brain freeze, people!

Can you think of any other methods of brain organization at its best?

*photo by stock.XCHNG


20 comments:

  1. Love these, especially the worry one. I tend to deal with that a lot.

    (And haha on "no soup for you." Made me smile!)

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    1. I swear worry must be built into the female code. Remember that Seinfeld episode?

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  2. I like the "take out the trash" one, but I do have to admit that I came here from Facebook. So guess I welcomed it in to take my time. Better get off here now and to work. Great post, Wendy!

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    1. Ah ha, Facebook. Gotcha! I constantly have to take out the trash.

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  3. I will not be polite to distractions! Ha! Love this!!

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    1. We can take some real aggression out on those bad boys.

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  4. "Trade Multi-tasked Mindjumper Mentality for Fully Focused Engaged Experiencer" - me, me, me! Ach. I'm so busy doing thirty mediocre things at once, I rarely do one or two things well, and miss the opportunity to fully engage and focus. Have you ever been at your child's Christmas program and you're so busy video taping or snapping pictures, you realize it's over and you really didn't experience anything? Then you have to look back at the pictures to reconstruct the event? *Raising hand.

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    1. Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts did wonders for me regarding this. I'm still learning the blessed art of slowing down and focusing.

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  5. What a great list, Wendy! I also really like not being polite to distractions. No more Mrs. Nice Guy. :) Thanks!

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    1. I like seeing them for what they really are--time wasters.

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  6. Oh man, this list is SO good...especially the last one. A year or two ago I read a post that said there's really no such thing as multi-tasking. When we think we're multi-tasking, what we're really doing is switch-tasking, switching from one activity to the next in teensy little bursts and that's incredibly inefficient. Man, that article was so freeing to me!

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    1. I used to think I was the queen of mt. I remember being proud I could breastfeed and pluck my eyebrows at the same. Now I realize how divided my attention is and how I'm not fully experiencing things living like that.

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  7. Excellent list! This one really helps me.
    "Goal-Set a Cerebral Table
    Establish attainable, focused tasks you’d like to accomplish. Write them in chalk on the canvas of your noggin’. Check in from time to time to evaluate if your centerpiece is the focal point of all you’ve set on the table."

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    1. I've had to do some checking and double-checking on that one a lot lately. Trips me up a lot.

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  8. Wendy, that's a great list and one I need to print out! I have the Mindjumper mentality! I like the chalk idea, but it may need to be in permanent marker on my forehead! :) Love this!

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    1. Sticky notes are fun. It's kind of sad how many sticky notes on top of sticky notes I have lying around. ;-)

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  9. Wendy: This is an interesting post. I find I get distracted more than I like to think about.

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  10. One thing's for sure and certain: I love the way you think!

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  11. Well, I'm a few days late on reading this, Wendy, but it turns out that for my end, it's a timely entry. I felt the need today to retreat inward. I'm not going to log in to Facebook today. You see, posting here helps me keep my commitment. Today is a day, I will focus towards God. I don't want to sound too 'out there' but my decision today is to show the people I love, how much I love them without saying it with words. I will also spend more effort towards writing.

    Thanks!

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Taking Time

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