Mind-clustering: Organize your mind, and get things done!
February 5, 2009 by Chris Duran
Filed under Articles, Blog, Choice Theory, Mental Attitude, Mental Discipline, Personal Organisation, Power of the mind
In the modern age. People are busy. Really busy. The vast majority of people have a number of things going on at once.
For example, currently, I am writing a book chapter for part of my PhD (and doing my PhD in general), working on a collaborative community WiFi site, organising last minute details for a trip to Japan, moving house and – obviously – writing articles for Cognicology.
As well as those projects, I have everyday things happening as well: grocery shopping to attend to, I need to return some library books, have bills to pay and some mail to post.
But wait there is more! I also have a social and personal development schedule to keep: I have catch-ups arranged with friends, a fitness schedule and some books to read…. and….
WHEW!
Likely, your schedule is just as hectic, perhaps even more so, and keeping track of all of this information can be overwhelming. It can (and very quickly) cause high levels of stress. This stress is caused by the constant nagging feeling that you have a large number of tasks or projects requiring your attention that are not being resolved or forwarded. Many people feel this stress, and there are many techniques out there to help deal with this problem.
One of the most effective techniques is what is known as a mind-dump, or brain-dump. The premise is to take a piece of paper or a whiteboard, and write down every single thing you need to get done. This is a great way of releasing everything from your mind that is causing you stress, and gives you a comprehensive TODO list! Once you have all of your tasks and jobs written down, you can then optionally categorise and prioritise them. There is a great article by Yaro Starak on this very topic.
So what is Mind-clustering, and is it different to Brain-dumping?
I don’t really consider mind-clustering to be all that different from a task-oriented brain dump. More accurately, it is looking at the same problem of task realisation/execution from a category-centric point of view. I like to think of mind clustering as a variation or extension of the brain dump technique.
The central idea behind mind clustering is that people often have tasks for a few different facets to their life. As I showed above, I quite often have a number of projects running simultaneously alongside the social and mundane aspects of my life. I used to find that when things got particularly busy, that I would get overwhelmed by the amount of work to do. I would chip away at Project A, then a little on Project B, but on a whole feel that I didn’t make any real progress on either project.
Mind clustering is a method for organising your tasks by facet or project and to actually start making some productive project on all fronts!
How do we mind-cluster?
Grab something to write on. I like to use an A3 sheet of paper, or a wall whiteboard – clustering can take up a little bit of space!
You need to brainstorm and identify the major facets or projects currently present in your life. These will become the ‘anchors’ for your mind-clusters. This process should only take a couple of minutes. Once you have a list of anchors, write them on your page, scattering them across the page to leave plenty of space between to write down your tasks. Don’t worry too much about covering absolutely every facet, this process is a broad stroke designed to separate clearly unrelated tasks. You can always fine tune later.
I tend to organise my tasks by project, and use project names for many of my anchors. Some people with clearly defined work/home boundaries like to draw up separate mind-cluster pages for work and for home. My boundaries are less clear so I like to use a single map. Both are fine approaches (you may have yet another approach, let us know about it!).
Here is an example list of anchors from a previous mind-clustering exercise of mine:
- PhD Book Chapter
- Wifi Australia
- Blogging
- Home Duties
- Social
- Self (my category for ‘me-centric’ activities such as fitness, reading, etc.)
- Administrivia (my term for all ‘that other stuff’ that pops up in life)
Take your list of suitable categories and write them down, scattered evenly across your sheet. Ensure to leave yourself plenty of space to write down tasks!
Now that you have your anchors in position. It is time to start dumping your tasks. As in a brain dump, sit and write down every task or thing you have to do. When writing down a job, orientate it close to the anchor of the most relevance. This is the most important step of the mind-clustering process, so take your time. Typically I will spend a good hour on this step.
Once you have all your tasks written down, it is worthwhile prioritising them. In fact, you most definitely should! It is a great way of confirming you have everything down and consolidates your thoughts. Exactly how you prioritise will vary for the categories. If one of your anchors is something quite specific, such as a work project, you might want to go through and number your tasks for that category. For something a little more encompassing like your social life, or home duties, an asterisk next to the most urgent items might suffice.
Now you have your list of anchors and related tasks. In other words, you have a map of your core activities and the tasks that you need to complete to progress in them. The next step is to start doing them! As well as organising your tasks and thoughts, the mind-clustering technique is also a great way to kill off procrastination: it gives you a concrete list of tasks to work through, turning that mountainous first step into a molehill. Everytime you complete a task, cross it off the page!
Review!
The final important step. Review. At the end of the day, take 5 minutes to look at your mind-clusters. I mentioned earlier that a frustrating thing for many people who have a number of projects running simultaneously is the feeling of running on the spot, making no progress at work. The great thing about this method is that at the end of the day you can look at your page and realise that you have made progress across the board. You can also review if you are spending more time in one area then another – you may decide to re-prioritise to balance out your load.
You will more then likely be amazed that you completed that little task you had ‘put off’ for the last two weeks, or that you actually remembered to put the recycling bin out for collection before your partner reminded you.
I find that this technique is great for providing mental clarity, by clearing out all of those housekeeping thoughts, allowing you to concentrate on important (and more interesting) things.
So, go get clustering!