It’s 3 pm, and it begins.
Board Member: “We’ll need to see more financial details in the project proposal by the end of the week.”
Boss: “I need x,y,z by end of day.”
Coworker: “Remember, you’re leading the Q4 presentation at 4 pm.”
Calendar Alert: “Research go to market strategies for client X.”
LinkedIn Message: “Are you open to an informational interview to share your career journey?”
Partner: “I need you to pick up milk and eggs on your way home.”
Child: “Can we play catch when you get home?”
Friend: “Don’t forget to book your flights for the girls trip next month.”
You: “If one more thing comes up my brain is going to explode!”
Sound familiar?
We consume extremely large volumes of data every day. In fact, a study conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Diego estimated that we are inundated with approximately 34 GB of data and information daily, enough to overload a laptop in a week. And while we are constantly being bombarded with information, we can’t always press “pause.” Once we break the information overload threshold, our thoughts may feel like a runaway train, but our responsibilities demand us to perform, so what do we do?
Perhaps leverage the Marie Kondo strategy. After all, neuroscience research suggests that when you organize a closet or your filing cabinets, you create capacity in other places of your life. The resulting surge of energy and clarity gives you capacity to problem solve bigger issues. The same is true for our thoughts. In fact, “a streamlined mind is much more effective than a perpetually overloaded one.” So, how do we unload the mind so we can find clarity? In order to overcome the bombardment of information we’re receiving on a daily basis and make sense of our thoughts, we must have systems, tools, and/or processes in place for organizing our thinking.
Slow Down. Multi-tasking Isn’t the Best.
When finding yourself spinning with thoughts, the most important thing you can do is to slow down. This is not a workout where pushing through is going to give you better results. Slowing down allows your autonomic system to reconstitute and empowers you to be in control. Contrary to what you think, multi-tasking doesn’t help and will actually clog up your brain with more thoughts. Whether you take a moment at the beginning of your day to briefly close your office door and gather your thoughts, or go on a walk outside during your lunch hour to walk off the cortisol pumping through your system, let yourself slow down. Our brains need to rest and recharge, so find what works best for you to slow down, and do that consistently to ensure the constant flow of information, data, and thoughts don’t short circuit you in a downward spiral of stress.
Write It Down. Get It Out of Your Head.
Doing a data dump of your thoughts and getting them down on paper will help you to declutter your mind. You can use lists, sentences, words, pictures, and phrases to make the thoughts tangible and ultimately, to get them out of your head. Our mind’s cognitive load reduces as we off-load information and gives us more mental RAM to focus without distractions. Developing a practice of doing this, either at the beginning of your day or week, or as a way to wrap-up your day or week in preparation for the next, will help quiet the noise in your brain so that you can relax at the end of the day or weekend, knowing you haven’t forgotten anything (or created space for other thoughts to surface)!
Create Your Own System. Determine What to Tackle First.
Once you’ve written down your thoughts it’s time to discern what is urgent and what is important. Today, leaders are not only bombarded with information, but also pressured to do more with what feels like less time. We’ve all wished we had more hours in the day, but guess what — that doesn’t have to be the case. To ensure you’re spending your time and energy on the right things, get clear on the difference between what is important and urgent for you to do, and what isn’t. A great tool to help determine where you should dive in first is the time management matrix developed by president Eisenhower and referred to in Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People— Habit 3: Put First Things First. This will help to prioritize information and work quickly and ensure you’re using your time wisely.
Decide to Delegate. You Cannot Do It all, Nor Should You.
We all want to prove ourselves and our value. And we’ve all been guilty of saying “yes” to that additional project or task from the boss, even though deep down we know we don’t have time or capacity for it. However, this decision then creates more clutter in our brains and adds tasks to our to-do lists. After you’ve determined what you should be spending your time on, then you can delegate some of those other to-do items and tasks to your team members. Afterall, the work still must get done at the end of the day and it will, especially if you’re able to successfully delegate it. And passing on work to someone else isn’t a reflection of your inability, but in fact creates a learning opportunity for someone else, where you can coach and provide feedback later. This involves deciding — deciding to delegate, and deciding to no longer put off decisions. Delayed decisions create more clutter in our brains.
Between emails, social media, television, and day-to-day interactions and conversations, our brains are running on overdrive. With all of the information swirling around in our brains, it’s imperative to have a way to organize our thoughts to keep us working efficiently and able to show up and tackle each day feeling our best.
We hope that these tips will help you go from being overloaded to running efficiently. We believe that your team and organization will thrive as a result.