How to get things out of your head for stress-free productivity

Our mind is for having ideas, not for holding them. This is the central theme in David Allen’s productivity classic "Getting Things Done".

To achieve stress-free productivity, it is crucial to minimize the number of things in our short-term memory – or "psychic RAM", as Allen calls it. Trying to fit too much information into it will not only stress us out, but also keep our mind from focusing deeply and having great ideas.

The less cluttered our minds, the more productive we get. As it turns out, much of the stress at work is due to three reasons: A lack of clarity about the result, a lack of clarity about the next steps, and worrying about forgetting something.

As I have described in the last three weeks, weekly planning, daily planning, and hourly adaptation help us maintain clarity about the result and next steps. To avoid worrying about forgetting things, having a trusted system (or “external brain”) for capturing to-do’s and ideas is key.

If you’re using a calendar, you’re already familiar with this concept: Rather than keeping track of all your appointments in your head, you capture them in your calendar. And if you’re using a waiting for list, you do the same for outgoing emails.

Likewise, habitually capturing to-do’s and ideas as they come up, and reviewing them regularly, frees up our minds for stress-free productivity. For many people, capturing to-do’s and ideas works best on a physical notebook. The Time-Block Planner, for example, has designated space each day for doing just that. 

Although I employ a physical planner to plan and replan my day, I prefer the seamlessness of digital tools to capture both to-do's and ideas: For capturing to-do's across my smartphone and computer, I use Todoist – the best app for that purpose that I have come across so far; Also, I have a "Working memory" text file on my desktop, which was inspired by Cal Newport. In that file, I capture all kinds of ideas throughout the day, as well as other longer information (e.g. meeting notes).

To include what I have captured in my weekly and daily planning, I systematically review the to-do’s and ideas I have captured. Specifically, I do so in the evening – as part of a comprehensive “shutdown routine” to call it a day. I'll provide a deep dive into that routine in an upcoming post. Stay tuned!

Pro tip: Every now and then, take 20 minutes to perform what Allen calls a “Mind Sweep”: Write down all the things that are on your mind to clear it completely. That simple practice will not only relieve stress, but also structurally improve your ability to focus deeply and have great ideas.

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Until next week,
Christian