Mama-on-Days: Taming my Mind clutter.

I’ve got a million things floating around in my head at any given minute.  

What do I need to get from the store, What am I doing with my speech kids today, whose reports are due, do I have any ideas for new TPT posts, what are my next blog topics, I should schedule a haircut, don’t forget to pay the utilities bill, I need to clean_____, What will we do on date night.  I can’t believe that happened at work.  I should have said….

It makes it really challenging for me to pay attention to what is happening RIGHT NOW.  Right now I’m thinking that the Biscuit should get in bed before he gets into some pretty big trouble.  But I should be thinking about my blog post.  

I’ve started doing a technique called Mindsweep that I learned at the GTD (Getting things done) webinar we took a few weeks ago..

Basically I take a couple of minutes just to write down everything I am thinking about at the moment.  I try to do right before I need to pay attention to something.  I’m starting to do this right before the Biscuit’s Bed time as it helps me to focus in on him.  I also try to do it at the beginning of my day or right before I start seeing clients.  Have you ever been in the middle of working on /s/ blends steak, spaghetti when you start unintentionally planning your dinner meals?  This helps.

The second part that I’m still working on is taking the list I made and adding it into a To Do list.  I’ve started using a list manager on my iPad and iPhone called 2Do.  There is also a web-based program that you can sync the app to.  It was recommended to me but it is kind of spendy at 9.99.

Here’s what I like.  You can make a variety of Tabs.  I have tabs for different people so I can remember to follow up with them, tabs for my blog, tabs for home etc.  I can give each item a “due date” which means I will see it in my inbox when I wake up.   What I like most is that I am consolidating all of my lists.  So now I don’t have to spend time thinking about what I am doing for ________, it’s on my list manager.

Have you used a list manager?  What were your favorites.

Next challenge:  Taming the laundry room disaster or at least creating a path to the washing machine.