Do You Have Cluttered Brain Syndrome? It might prevent focus.

I know I do. Don’t know if it’s really a thing. It’s not a disorder, but an inability to categorize your thoughts. Every single idea and thought that shoves itself to the front of your brain demands attention. You lose focus. If you ignore, maybe it’ll return with its “buddies.”

Is it an inability to focus? A result of carrying too many responsibilities? A symptom of anxiety? This scenario is pretty constant with me. For example:

While writing this post, maybe I need to check the Bookmarks Bar app I installed. Shouldn’t I be doing something to prepare for tomorrow? I forgot to buy cat food today. Look at the dust on the table! I need to copy a page of music for one of my lessons tomorrow night. Don’t forget to log your calories in Fitbit. Speaking of that, I need to charge it. Oooh look! 6 Facebook notifications. I haven’t checked my email in a while. Remember to check your webmail too. A text – who’s it from, maybe it’s important. I haven’t read my book yet today. Did I lock the garage? Wasn’t I supposed to remind [whoever] of something? I love to write haiku – and I really want to try art journaling. Damn, there’s just no time to be creative. I really enjoyed that talk yesterday. I should have said X instead of Y. What should I have for supper tomorrow? Focus!!

Does that happen to you? Problem is, thoughts can annoying when they should be productive. They behave like a pack of disobedient, undomesticated animals when when they should be serving your greater good. What to do?

1. Calm down. Sit or lie comfortably and try to not think of anything. Of course, it’s nearly impossible to focus. That’s the point. Write down or use a voice recorder to take down every single thought that intrudes on your quiet, without judging them. Just record the topic, not every detail, or you might be writing a novel.
2. Depending on how active your mind is, you might need to do this a few times a day to keep your focus. Keep going until you feel all your unique thoughts have been accounted for.
3. Now sit down with your list. You’re going to categorize each one. You can either use colored markers, with a different color for each category, or write the categories on a separate piece of paper so you can list each thought underneath.

The idea here is to acknowledge each thought under controlled conditions so it’s not so bothersome in the               course of your day. For example, I could categorize my previous thoughts into Business Technology, Planner,           Shopping List, House, Lessons, Personal Social Media, Business Social Media, Creativity, Things to Let                   Go (useless worrying).

Now that you have places to store each thought – it helps to actually write them under each category – you can acknowledge each and send it on its way to the right place. I’d recommend a few quiet minutes at the end of each day putting those thoughts to work for you in a beneficial way. For example, I can prepare for tomorrow by focusing on my Shopping List and House thoughts. If I plan on working, I can use my ideas from Business Social Media and Business Technology. 

You can get your focus back, and turn Cluttered Brain Syndrome into Creative Brain Synergy!