At the beginning of this week I let you know about my idea to trial a few time management techniques to see how they affect my business, health and mind.
This week I decided to do a Morning Brain Dump each day for all the tasks I needed to get done for my business. It’s separated into four quadrants; Must, Should, Could and Want To.
Initially I really felt like this was working for me and I was thinking I’d solved all my problems. I had some really great things I wanted to achieve and I was able to give them priority, make myself charge through the things which were vital to do today and then hop around the rest of the quadrants to find things which I wanted to get done and tick them off.
However, after the following days, I noticed there were a few things on my list that I just wasn’t rubbing off my sheet (I laminated mine and used a dry-erase pen). This meant that they were there staring me in the face and making me feel a little frustrated that I wasn’t getting the whole thing completely done by the end of the day.
What I had to tell myself was this…
This isn’t meant to be a list of things I CAN achieve in a day. It’s just a way of getting everything out of my head so I can find some focus.
My mind used to be a whirling, out of control mess some years ago while I was just starting my business. On the outside I looked calm and collected but the endless hopping and jumping that my mind was prone to doing really made it difficult to be as effective as I wanted to be. I had so many ideas that it was hard focussing on one and following through.
This brain-emptying morning ritual is definitely a great place to start if you’ve got a lot going on in your head but after my experience this I am now going to try to amalgamate it with a few other techniques. I think combining them can give me even more ability to prioritise and achieve my goals.
Here’s the printable again if you would like to give it a go yourself or would like to follow along next week as I use the Morning Brain Dump along with a new time management strategy – the Daily Schedule..
Morning Brain Dump
It definitely did kick some goals however! I started each day with a very clear understanding of what needed to be done in order to get my business moving in the right direction. I didn’t get to it one day and I definitely felt how much my brain missed it! I felt a little scattered and as though I had too many things to do. As soon as I wrote it all down, I felt fine and wondered what I was so worried about.
I would love to hear if you used the Morning Brain Dump this week and how it went for you!
Was it helpful? Did you think there were ways it could be improved?
Kath xx
