Brain Clutter

Jason's birthday. Oil change for the car. Dental appointment. Get well soon card for Erin. Status report for work. Get a haircut. Renew warranty coverage for the laptops. Taxes. Reservations for our anniversary. Pick up the dry cleaning. Decide about whether and when to undergo the surgery the doctor recommended. Clean up my email inbox. Get an estimate for whatever. An endless chain of tasks large and small, mostly small, running through your brain every day, every hour, maybe multiple times per hour.

Brain clutter. It gets in the way of the really important thinking and doing we all must think and do, and we all want to think and do: Get a better job; plan for retirement; raise happy, healthy children; attend to loved ones in need; get together with extended family; enjoy life.

Letting the little things remain in a disordered jumble of "to do" keeps the workspace of your mind in a chaotic state. That chaos creates mental obstacles to finding paths to the more important objectives.

Because brain clutter gets in the way, decluttering your brain is a good thing to do. To declutter your brain apply one of the fundamental practices of kanban: "limit the work in progress." In this instance, try to reduce the clutter of concerns floating around in your mind. Here are some suggestions for decluttering.

Attend to small, easy tasks

Don't let them accumulate. Small, easy tasks distract from
the more important objectives.
Don't let small tasks accumulate.They distract from the important objectives. Complete the small, easy task right away if completing it will it ultimately be necessary, and if it's easy to do, and if you have what you need to get it done.

Schedule what can be set aside

If something needn't be done immediately, set it aside with a commitment to deal with it at a specific time. Scheduling it will clear it from your mind for now. You might need to write down your commitment to make certain you honor it.

If you can't schedule it, move it to backlog

There are some things that can't be scheduled because they require additional information or material. To keep them in mind, commit them to a backlog. Capture the items blocking that task and attend to them — or schedule them.

Have multiple backlogs

Mixing all kinds of tasks into a single backlog can become confusing. Create backlog channels for the different kinds of tasks you must address: a backlog for work, a backlog for family, a backlog for long-term future, and so on.

Know how to set priorities

Have in mind a definite way of setting priorities for different kinds of time. Know how to choose a task to work on for a ten-minute block of time at work or at home, or for a two-hour block at home on a weekend or sometime at work. Don't set priorities ad hoc.

Decide what "good enough for now" means

"Good enough for now" might have one meaning for cleaning out your email inbox, and a very different meaning when filing your taxes or choosing a birthday gift for your spouse. Because perfectionism can be a risk, know its warning signs. One warning sign: insufficient situational flexibility in the meaning of "good enough for now."

Know the count of active concerns

An active concern is one you haven't set aside or scheduled. You might not be working on it, but it's on your mind. The number of active concerns one can handle without significantly compromising one's ability to make progress toward important objectives probably varies from person to person, and depends on the nature of the concerns in question. But knowing how many there are can be helpful in determining whether some must be set aside or scheduled. Personally, I get uncomfortable if I have more than about a half-dozen active concerns. What's your number?

To make a start with this approach, avoid adopting the entire scheme in one go. Adopt it a bit at a time, and use only the bits that make sense for you. For starters, just count your active concerns. You'll be surprised at how many there are, I'm certain.  Top    Next Issue

Love the work but not the job? Bad boss, long commute, troubling ethical questions, hateful colleague? This ebook looks at what we can do to get more out of life at work. It helps you get moving again! Read Go For It! Sometimes It's Easier If You Run, filled with tips and techniques for putting zing into your work life. Order Now!

Your comments are welcome

About Point Lookout

Thank you for reading this article. I hope you enjoyed it and found it useful, and that you'll consider recommending it to a friend.

This article in its entirety was written by a human being. No machine intelligence was involved in any way.

Point Lookout is a free weekly email newsletter. Browse the archive of past issues. Subscribe for free.

Support Point Lookout by joining the Friends of Point Lookout, as an individual or as an organization.

Do you face a complex interpersonal situation? Send it in, anonymously if you like, and I'll give you my two cents.

Related articles

More articles on Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness:

When Stress Strikes

Most of what we know about person-to-person communication applies when levels of stress are low. But when stress is high, as it is in emergencies, we're more likely to make mistakes. Knowing those mistakes in advance can be helpful in avoiding them.

Wacky Words of Wisdom

Words of wisdom are so often helpful that many of them have solidified into easily remembered capsules. We do tend to over-generalize them, though, and when we do, trouble follows. Here are a few of the more dangerous ones.

The Tyranny of Singular Nouns

When groups try to reach decisions, and the issue in question has a name that suggests a unitary concept, such as "policy," they sometimes collectively assume that they're required to find a one-size-fits-all solution. This assumption leads to poor decisions when one-size-fits-all isn't actually required.

Managing Hindsight Bias Risk

Performance appraisal practices and project retrospectives both rely on evaluating performance after outcomes are known. Unfortunately, a well-known bias — hindsight bias — can limit the effectiveness of many organizational processes, including both performance appraisal and project retrospectives.

Anticipating Absence: Internal Consulting

Most consultants are advisors from outside the organization. But when many employees are unavailable because of the Coronavirus pandemic, we need to find ways to access the knowledge that remains inside the organization. Internal consulting can help.

See also Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness and Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness for more related articles.

Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout

Coming January 22: Storming: Obstacle or Pathway?

The Storming stage of Tuckman's model of small group development is widely misunderstood. Fighting the storms, denying they exist, or bypassing them doesn't work. Letting them blow themselves out in a somewhat-controlled manner is the path to Norming and Performing. Available here and by RSS on January 22.

And on January 29: A Framework for Safe Storming

The Storming stage of Tuckman's development sequence for small groups is when the group explores its frustrations and degrees of disagreement about both structure and task. Only by understanding these misalignments is reaching alignment possible. Here is a framework for this exploration. Available here and by RSS on January 29.

Coaching services

I offer email and telephone coaching at both corporate and individual rates. Contact Rick for details at rbrenjTnUayrCbSnnEcYfner@ChacdcYpBKAaMJgMalFXoCanyon.com or (650) 787-6475, or toll-free in the continental US at (866) 378-5470.

Get the ebook!

Past issues of Point Lookout are available in six ebooks:

• Get 2001-2 in Geese Don't Land on Twigs (PDF, )
• Get 2003-4 in Why Dogs Wag (PDF, )
• Get 2005-6 in Loopy Things We Do (PDF, )
• Get 2007-8 in Things We Believe That Maybe Aren't So True (PDF, )
• Get 2009-10 in The Questions Not Asked (PDF, )
• Get all of the first twelve years (2001-2012) in The Collected Issues of Point Lookout (PDF, )

Are you a writer, editor or publisher on deadline? Are you looking for an article that will get people talking and get compliments flying your way? You can have 500-1000 words in your inbox in one hour. License any article from this Web site. More info