I must focus on the most important things and channel my creativity.

My brain is very often a cluttered place to live.  I’ll have a bazillion ideas at once, and it feels like I need to do them all, right now.  It can be pretty tremendous pressure, especially when paired with the things already on my task list.

I understand this is a common pitfall as a creative person with my personality type, but I also understand it’s important for me to have some control over the brain clutter.  I have learned a few important things in trying to tame the mess.

First, write it all down.  I have a journal just for ideas.  Random midnight genius inspiration?  Put it in the journal and go to bed.  Brilliant shower thought?  Put it in the book and go on about the day.  Putting it in a central idea space makes it easy to go back and pull out later when I have time to consider it and work on it.

The idea journal also gives me the gift of space.  It frees my head space to work on the task before me first without losing that random inspiration thought.  I don’t have to worry about forgetting it while I finish the open project.  It also gives me some distance from the initial idea, so when I go back to it, sometimes I discover it wasn’t as brilliant as I initially thought. (I know, I’m as shocked as you are that all my ideas aren’t perfectly genius.)

Second, just say no.  I say this like it’s going to be more effective than it was on the war on drugs when I was in middle school.  It probably won’t be effective at first, but it will as you practice more.  I’ve learned that if I say yes to every opportunity and every idea that comes along, I won’t do any of them well – if I manage to complete anything at all.

By limiting what I work on, I can be more productive because I can actually finish what I start.  My pile of unfinished crafts is proof that all the things all at once is no way to live.  The good news is, since I’ve limited the new projects I’ve allowed myself to start, I’ve been working through the old unfinished piles and completing more of them, too.

When we allow everything onto our radar at once, our capability and vision are limited by the sheer volume of stuff on the screen.  If we narrow that down, we can channel more energy and creativity into a single project, making it stronger work and completing it more quickly than if it were one of a dozen projects open at once.  That focus also makes it possible to move on to the next idea sooner.

If you’re anything like me, it’s a giant happy to finish a big project.  That happy far outweighs the frustration of limiting what I take on, so I choose to focus on just a few things at a time.

Do you find it easy to say no to give yourself room to work on the most important things in your life?  If not, what can you say no to that will give you some freedom to work on what matters most?