Mind is a creative, multidimensional, imagination factory that cranks out limitless thoughts instantly, continuously, consciously, and even subconsciously. There is at least one thought striving for attention on your mind. As humans, such a process is a natural mind activity. Nevertheless, if not managed efficiently, your mind will subconsciously make you feel that you have a ton of things to do; and heighten your anxiety for things that are even insignificant. It is undoubtedly that the mind has the innate ability to keep track of things that need to be done, but keeping track of all these things as well as transforming them into actions in a timely manner can be very intricate and demanding for the mind. The keys to unlocking this complex situation are below stated.
Here are 3 simple steps to help you alleviate cluttered minds.
Step 1. Write down all of your thoughts on a mind map.
Your mind is at ease if the thoughts it bears are written down and read. Taking the first step of writing down your thoughts creates calmness in your mind, making it seems the thoughts have been parked, instead of just roaming around. A good activity before you start your day at work, home, or school is to pour out your thoughts on a mind map. Let it just flow out of you; don’t worry about the spellings of what you have written or its position on the branch. Let your thoughts be drawn on the canvas of a mind map unhindered. However, it is important to have a timeframe like a minute or two or so for this activity so that you won’t be thinking too much about it, thus impeding the creative flow.
Once they are written down, your mind will be conditioned to believe that the items you have written down no longer need permanent housing on your mind.
Step 2. Carefully organize your thoughts on a mind map
Now that you have all these thoughts and ideas on a mind map, you can organize the ones that are significant to you. Everyone thinks differently and has their own way of organizing thoughts, but the commonality with this activity will be that they will experience calmer and sounder minds. As you organize your thoughts into categories and action items, you will soon realize that your mind is not running around with multidimensional thoughts as much as before. You will also realize that there are certain relationships that can be established from your thoughts. Forming this association is another benefit of mind mapping that will lead you to form more creative ideas and innovation.
Step 3. Assign priority and importance
When you have already brainstormed and carefully organized your thoughts, then it is pretty easy to decipher priorities and importance. You may already have observed while organizing the map that some thoughts are just trivial and insignificant, yet they consumed a large part of your mind; it is just the way humans are all wired. At this stage, assign priorities and importance so that you know what needs to be done at a particular time; now, today, this week, this month, and this year. Your daily thoughts and actions items will ultimately align themselves with your short-term and long-term goals. Therefore, to achieve your goals and objectives in life; it is imperative to have a roadmap.
At this assigning priority and importance stage, it is important to remind ourselves of Covey’s 4 Quadrants for time management. Our efforts in prioritizing should align with Quadrant 2: Not urgent & Important. We are striving for long-term planning, strategizing, and development.
What are you thinking right now? Are you overwhelmed with tasks and multidimensional ideas rushing at you like Niagara Falls? Do not let your pin-ball thoughts hijack your focus and drive. All you need to do is write them down, carefully organize them, and prioritize them. When you have written your thoughts down at first, you will be surprised to find some important ideas along with insignificant ones. Insignificant thoughts are like the weed that refuses to die, but mind mapping is one way to keep the weed from growing bigger and out of control. When you have carefully organized and prioritized the written down thoughts; you will surely be less burdened by the nagging thoughts that you have to do something, but don’t know where to start.