Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to get it out of your head.
Speaker 1: That is, write down anything you're not going to do
Speaker 1: right this minute. In a previous episode, I talked about
Speaker 1: keeping your to do list short. The reason to do
Speaker 1: this is that there's no point putting something on a
Speaker 1: to do list and then not doing it. It's just
Speaker 1: as undone as if you'd never put it on the
Speaker 1: list in the first place, only now you feel bad too.
Speaker 1: Better to have expectations meet reality. The only way to
Speaker 1: guarantee that happens is to keep your list short. I
Speaker 1: mentioned that a lot of people really resist this idea.
Speaker 1: That's because we're responsible for more than three to five
Speaker 1: things in the universe. So what do you do with
Speaker 1: the rest of this stuff? How do you keep it
Speaker 1: from clogging up your brain? How do you make sure
Speaker 1: you'll remember it in the future. Well, As Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: listener Holly put it in an email to me, you
Speaker 1: get it out of your head. Holly wrote in her
Speaker 1: note that while she was going through some very stressful
Speaker 1: times in her personal life, she began writing down various
Speaker 1: images and memories that came to her, so she'd have
Speaker 1: them somewhere but wouldn't have to dwell on them. She
Speaker 1: later realized that this process was useful for things beyond
Speaker 1: her ruminations. It was a good idea for managing to
Speaker 1: do lists in general. So now I have a small
Speaker 1: notebook and each page has a subject line, she writes,
Speaker 1: And on that page, I create a list of things
Speaker 1: I need to remember, things that I need to do,
Speaker 1: and things I want to do. This takes them out
Speaker 1: of my head and into a place I can look
Speaker 1: over several times a day to see what I can
Speaker 1: take off. That is, when she finds herself with some
Speaker 1: extra time. She noted that these lists also hold her
Speaker 1: accountable for steps toward bigger projects. It shows progress, it
Speaker 1: shows achievements, and it shows goals. She says, So what
Speaker 1: kind of pages does Holly have in her notebook? She
Speaker 1: sent me a partial list with all of them. She
Speaker 1: has pages for tracking holidays taken at work, notes for
Speaker 1: her lawyer, notes for her doctor, not ites about money.
Speaker 1: General category. Here, she says, I put things I need
Speaker 1: to do but haven't gotten around to, such as getting
Speaker 1: the cat micro chipped, meeting up with so and so, etcetera.
Speaker 1: She has a page for her podcast, a page devoted
Speaker 1: to holiday destinations, page devoted to therapy that might encompass,
Speaker 1: things to cover in sessions or exercises she needs to do,
Speaker 1: shopping lists, make up. She says, I keep a list
Speaker 1: of the shades and brands I love so I don't forget,
Speaker 1: a destination, bucket list, a list for her car which
Speaker 1: includes general info and renewal dates things like that, a
Speaker 1: Christmas gift idealist, a dream journal, birthday list, social appointments, etcetera.
Speaker 1: Holly writes that this may seem like a lot, but
Speaker 1: each time I need to make room in my head
Speaker 1: or life, or I'm worried I'll forget a date or
Speaker 1: a piece of information, I just flipped to that page
Speaker 1: and no it down. It has given me back control
Speaker 1: and allowed me to stop procrastinating. What Holly discovered is
Speaker 1: that just because we're not going to do something right
Speaker 1: now doesn't mean we don't want to know about it
Speaker 1: or think about it in the future. So, for instance,
Speaker 1: I just made a list in my planner that I'm
Speaker 1: calling the Summer fun List. These are things I want
Speaker 1: to do over the summer that makes summer feel like
Speaker 1: summer to me. I put things like eating ice cream
Speaker 1: at days in Ocean Grove on the New Jersey Shore,
Speaker 1: going to a Phillies game, going to a beer garden,
Speaker 1: and listening to music outdoors. None of these things are
Speaker 1: on my to do list for tomorrow or even for
Speaker 1: the next week. But as I'm going into summer weekends
Speaker 1: and thinking about what I might like to do, I'll
Speaker 1: have this list to look back on. I also have
Speaker 1: an ongoing list of home projects that we should probably
Speaker 1: do at some point. If I put clean out the
Speaker 1: closet on my to do list for this weekend, well,
Speaker 1: it probably wouldn't get done because it's a full weekend,
Speaker 1: and then I'd feel bad. But at least now it's somewhere,
Speaker 1: and what I do feel like I have some time
Speaker 1: and want to tackle a project. I know which one's
Speaker 1: I've identified as being worth doing. I'd also definitely recommend
Speaker 1: keeping a t BR list that stands for to be read.
Speaker 1: Anytime you hear a good book recommendation, don't assume you'll
Speaker 1: remember it. You won't remember it. Put it on the
Speaker 1: t BR list. Then, when you find yourself stuck with
Speaker 1: a weight somewhere you can look at the list, order
Speaker 1: the e book on your phone and start reading it
Speaker 1: in your e reading app. Our brains can do all
Speaker 1: sorts of amazing things, but remembering stuff we need to
Speaker 1: do in the future is not really one of those things.
Speaker 1: Or worse, we'll remember the thing at a time when
Speaker 1: we can do nothing about it. I really should call
Speaker 1: my accountant about that tax issue. Is just not a
Speaker 1: helpful thing to wake up and pull over at three am,
Speaker 1: So get it out of your head. Then your head
Speaker 1: will have room for all sorts of other amazing ideas.
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear about the lists you make. Do
Speaker 1: you make a lot of them, like Holly, or just
Speaker 1: a few? Do you keep them in a notebook or
Speaker 1: an app or somewhere online. You can email me with
Speaker 1: your ideas at Before Breakfast Podcast at iHeart media dot com.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.
Speaker 1: That's B the number four, then Breakfast p O. D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at iHeart media dot com that Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I
Speaker 1: look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H