Fast and Effective Mind Clearing - Part 1

When I start feeling overwhelmed about what I've got on my plate, one thing I have found that really helps give me clarity and a huge sense of relief is doing what David Allen calls a "mind sweep."

A mind sweep is a quick way of capturing everything that you've been keeping track of in your head and getting it down on paper.

Here's how you do a mind sweep:

Spend some time going through your mind and writing down all the things you want to do, have been thinking about doing, have started but haven't finished, and that have been bugging you.

Some common memory-joggers to help you with your mind sweep include:

• projects that you have already started but haven't yet completed (both personal and professional)
• projects that you have not yet started (both personal and professional)
• errands you need to run
• communication you need to make (phone calls, email, letters to write)
• events to plan or attend
• financial matters to handle
• goals
• travel
• family stuff
• community stuff
• health
• home
• hobbies

The idea of a mind sweep is to empty out your head of all the things you’ve been consciously or unconsciously keeping track of (and each one is taking energy to keep track of)...so that you have them on paper rather than storing them all in your head.

Most approaches suggest that you create one big list of items, but I suggest you write each individual item on a separate sheet of paper, on the back of outdated business cards that you were planning on tossing, or, my personal favorite, on individual index cards.

Once you have emptied your mind of all these to-dos, you probably have a big stack of index cards (or paper, etc.). At that point, you can sort them and rearrange them any way you want.

Once you have emptied your mind of everything that has been racing around in there, you can make choices about each item.

And just because you thought of it, doesn't mean it has to be done now, soon, all at once, or EVER. You get to decide.

I find that every time I start to feel like my head is getting too full of stuff, a good mind sweep is just like a good closet clear-out...and gives me breathing room again.

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