6 tips to organize your thoughts

Anything can be organized, even your thoughts. We say we can’t help the way we think, but we can! There may be things in life that we have no control over, but our thoughts are not one of them.

When a thought comes to mind, you choose to accept or reject it. Your choice may be conscious or subconscious, but either way it is your choice.

Our brains basically work like computers.. They are constantly processing information; incoming thoughts and outgoing actions. Sometimes so many thoughts float through our heads that we can’t keep them in order. If we don’t remove the excess somehow, we become overwhelmed and process this information much slower and less efficiently than we would like.

The following list provides 6 tips to help organize your thoughts. My hope is that these tips provide some relief from the barrage of thoughts that come from our fast-paced lives. Clutter is clutter, whether it comes in the form of things in our homes or thoughts in our brains. We need to declutter our brains, just like we declutter our homes.

• document your thoughts – This seems like a simple idea and it is. There are times when we have ideas, or thoughts about a multitude of things. If you don’t get those things out of your head and document them in some way, you are in danger of forgetting them or feeling overwhelmed. Use the medium that works best for you, such as: pen and paper, text, voicemail, phone app, etc.
• order your thoughts – After documenting all your thoughts, tasks, concerns, ideas, questions, etc., put them in their respective categories.
• prioritize your thoughts – Due dates and deadlines are priorities based on importance and urgency. Many times, due dates and deadlines determine our priorities. Other times, our problems worry us and those thoughts become our priority. Taking action on those troubling thoughts, however small, can possibly reduce stress, so you can purposefully re-prioritize the thought for another time.
• reframing a thought – Reframing refers to changing the way in which a thought, concept or idea is considered. This can be useful when you are troubleshooting. Looking at a problem in a different way can provide a workable solution.
• without multiple–task assignment – It has been determined that multitasking is counterproductive. When you try to do more than one task at a time, your brain spends more time trying to switch between tasks or thoughts. Focus on one thought at a time for optimal productivity.
• mental clarity – Sometimes we need a break. Thought can be exhaustive. To organize our thoughts, we need mental clarity. There are many ways to achieve mental clarity and it is different for all of us. Taking a walk in the fresh air does it for me. Meditation works for some, while exercise works for others. Find something that works for you and practice it regularly.