Why You Need to Organize Your Mind
In the digital age, we are more than ever being bombarded with information. This includes everything from the notifications and messages on our phones, to the constant stimulation that comes from the television and the web. At work, things are even worse as we’re constantly focussing on one stream of information and then the next and even when we’re on holiday we willingly subject ourselves to more noise and bright lights in the form of computer games and YouTube videos.
We’re constantly wired and this leaves us exhausted, stressed and with little energy or motivation to focus on the things that really matter to us.
Psychologists call this phenomenon ‘Information Overload’ and it’s closely related to another concept known as ‘Decision Fatigue’. Information overload is what happens when our brains simply become exhausted from concentrating on so many information streams at once and never getting to relax and focus on a single thing.
Meanwhile, decision fatigue is the result of our having to make too many decisions in a day. We have a finite number of decisions and the more we make, the less energy we have to make decisions later on. This is why we find ourselves with less motivation and energy by the end of the day – and it can even lead to poor choices, procrastination and lethargy.
The point is, that as you chase all this information and respond to all these requests, you find yourself in more and more of a ‘reactive state’ where you are just carrying out tasks for others and giving freely of your time. This is fine, except it leaves little room for you to be proactive and for you to focus on the things you love or working toward the goals that matter to you.
THIS is why you need to organize your mind: so that you can avoid distractions and so that you can focus more on the things that are important to you. You need to really value your time – because you only have so much of it and you shouldn’t be spending it on things that don’t matter or that make you unhappy.
