Questions Floating In Your Head

Lately, my personal, professional and proverbial cup not only runneth over but my plate overflowth and my head near explodeth.

All of this may, in fact, sound positive – but it's has had one negative effect: I cannot think coherently enough to make sound decisions, in the present moment, nor to allow creativity to flow. In simple terms, my blog entries have been fewer, but fortunately I do not blog for a living. In the larger picture, long-term decisions like career choices, personal travel plans and how and when I interact with others have all been compromised by this state of too mucheth.

Being the black-or-white person that I am, balance has eluded me much of my life, and no amount of superhuman organizational skills nor intellectual intuition have helped me overcome the extreme. In fact, they may have stood in the very way of the balance I used them to achieve. Over-organization led to over-analysis which led to over-thinking of the outcome, which led to …guess what??? Nothing that I can remember or have to show for all of that mental effort!

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These exercises in futility have led me to two inevitable conclusions, which lend themselves to life lessons:

1. Accept who and what you are– Give up beating yourself up. Enough. The same skills which make you a success in a professional situation may turn against you in a personal one. Know your skills, their advantages and disadvantages and when to recognize that they may need to be toned down or heavily invoked for a particular instance.

2. Listen for, actively seek and find techniques which can assist you– work with you, in the times you need mental clarity most.

   • When I am most frantic, in mind and body, what I need most is quiet time – to turn on my Ipod and let the words of a soothing Podcase or meditational tune calm my mind so that my actions will follow. Yet, it is during these fast and furious episodes when I am chasing after the hi-speed-car-chase thoughts in my head, that I would rarely stop and actually invoke this technique when I need it most. So, I keep a list of "relaxation" techniques close at hand, and on my fridge, as a blatant reminder that I must stop in order to keep moving…

   • When my metaphorical desk is covered with projects large and small, multiple tasks, deadlines near and far, what I need most is tostreamline those projects into priorities– keeping them all on the radar and within range of accomplishment – yet not necessarily all crowded at the front lobe of my brain.How to do this?There are many tools, technical and creative, which I invoke:

     1. One of my favorites is a simple "responsibility assignment matrix" template which I created to compartmentalize my areas of responsibility. It acts as a visual taskmaster, illustrating what needs to be done in plain sight and guiding my brain, therefore, to where I will place my focus, or upon whom. I used this as a manager, having a compartmentalized "box" for each employee's individual tasks which I needed to oversee, as well as an extra box in which I placed my own departmental deliverables. Today I use this same template to quantify my individual projects and clients as well as my own personal agenda items. I have even used it to itemize the rooms I needed cleaned, when I had hired a housekeeper.
     2. Another tool I recently discovered, the"Action Book."This is an actual paper product which has its own complementary software. The Action Book was designed to provide a flexible template to get the most out of what is in your head and which needs to be put into action. Its format cleverly encourages you to gather your thoughts/projects/responsibilities in the way which will most effectively boost productivity and make ideas happen. Fabulous gift for students and professionals, alike, by the way!
     3. If you're more electronically enlightened, the options are limitless – one I happen to enjoy isMicrosoft‘s OneNotewhich allows you not only to create a virtual notebook, but also to individualize its sections and even to drag and drop websites, web-based articles and the like as reminders or pieces of inspiration. I am also a huge fan ofMicrosoft Outlook, but not in the typical sense – many swear by its calendaring and note features which create electronic pop ups and task reminders, and can be sync'd with IPhones and Blackberries etc – instead, I simply and religiously print weekly (or depending on how busy I am, daily) calendars from Outlook in which I map out my day's/week's/ or 6 months' worth of upcoming tasks, meetings and reminders. Call me old fashioned, I just prefer to write things down, preferably in as many colors as there are color pencils in the box. But either way, Outlook is a very handy tool to use to keep yourself on time and on track.
     4. Sometimes, you mayjust need a nap. So, listen to your body and mind if it's tired, and sleep in just one extra hour. It may make all the difference you need.

So, when there are multiple thoughts, ideas or decisions floating in your psyche, swim against the current in your head and STOP for a moment to consider what techniques you need most at that moment toregain focus, practice being in the present and channeling your innermost most creative and productive self.

I plan to stop writing and do just that…