Of course, it’s not a secret that the modern world can be an overwhelming place. The average American is confronted by at least five times as much information each day as he/she was in 1986. The typical supermarket now stocks more than four times as many items as in 1976, greatly increasing the number of decisions faced during a chore as seemingly simple as grocery shopping. And this kind of information and choice overload permeates our culture.
Yet the human brain has not evolved to cope with this deluge of information and decisions.
However, there are various ways to cope that will reduce stress, save time and bring your life back into balance. Here are 11 practical strategies rooted in cutting-edge neurological and psychological research that can help you thrive and be happier in today’s overloaded world…
Write down everything that’s on your mind to clear your mind. When something is nagging at your mind, it significantly reduces your ability to focus on anything else—the brain’s capacity for attention is limited.
To clear your mind of distractions, jot down every idea, doubt and responsibility that is competing for your attention before turning to an important project or at any other time that you feel overwhelmed.
The human mind’s desire to hold on to thoughts is greatly reduced when we know that those thoughts have been written down (or typed into a smartphone or computer). It’s the neurological equivalent of downloading computer files onto a backup storage device to clear up space on the computer’s hard drive.
Two more ways to “offload memory” from your brain…
• Use a smartphone calendar app to remember deadlines and responsibilities. Your brain won’t feel that it has to keep track of everything you need to do and everywhere you need to be if your smartphone is remembering these things for you.
Some smartphone apps, including Google Home, even feature “location-based” reminders that provide a helpful nudge when you’re in the location where this information is most useful. Many smartphones have this function built in.
Example: Set a location-based reminder to remind you to pick up a gallon of milk next time you are in or near the grocery store.
• Each evening, place a note about any items that you need to remember the next morning somewhere that you will see it at the start of your day, such as by your front door or on the driver’s seat of your vehicle.
Assign everything a precise place. Start with items that you chronically misplace. Choose a specific hook for your keys…and a specific spot in a specific drawer for your reading glasses. The brain has a structure called the hippocampus that does a wonderful job of remembering where things are—but only if things are always in the same spot. The hippocampus is relatively ineffective at locating things that lack a fixed location. Also…
• Choose one or two locations in your home to serve as an all-purpose storage location for items that lack any other obvious storage spot. This might be a “junk drawer” in the kitchen for small items…and a specific “miscellaneous” corner of an attic or a basement for larger items.
Junk drawers and miscellaneous storage areas are a triumph of cognitive economy. It would be inefficient to devote time and mental resources to deciding where to store each hard-to-sort item and remembering where to find these things later.
Store items by usage, not by type. People tend to store items together with other similar items. All household paperwork often is stored together in a single file cabinet…all tools together on a tool bench. But while that seems sensible, it actually can make things more challenging to find in some circumstances.
If an item is always used in a particular place, it probably should be stored near that place, even if various other, similar items are stored elsewhere. If an item is used only at one particular time of year, it should be stored with various other items that are used at that time of year.
Examples…
That little tightening tool that comes with a piece of Ikea furniture can get lost among larger tools. Instead, tape or strap it to an out-of-sight spot on the Ikea furniture itself.
Kitchen tools used only for cooking (as opposed to, say, serving) should be stored as close as possible to the stove—I hang mine right over the stove—not necessarily with other kitchen implements.
Holiday cookie cutters should be stored with holiday items, not with everyday baking items.
Invoices from a child’s summer day camp should be filed with tax paperwork, not with child-activity–related paperwork, because summer day camp expenses might be tax-deductible and so the invoices would be needed when completing a tax return.
Assign each project its own location. Your memory can be greatly aided by location and context. That’s why people often experience a flood of old memories when they return to a place where they haven’t been in years. It’s also why students do better on exams if they study in the same room where the exam will be given.
Of course, this can be a detriment when you are trying to remember something out of its natural location or context…or when trying to focus on just one thing in a place where you pursue multiple projects. Famed neurologist and best-selling author Oliver Sacks, MD, had a strategy for coping with this challenge—he chose a different spot in his home or office for each project that he was currently pursuing. This spot might have been a particular room in the home or a particular table or desk in the office.
Stepping into a project’s designated space triggered the memories he had formed in that specific location, improving his ability to focus his mind on only that project so that he could think more productively and creatively about it. Any other projects that he currently was pursuing were tackled elsewhere, so his mind would be somewhat less likely to drift to them. Similar…
• If you struggle to maintain focus while using your computer, you could set up different user accounts on your computer for each project. Select a different computer-screen background picture and/or color for each of these user accounts. You may find it easier to focus on a particular project or task when using its user account.
Don’t let unimportant e-mails distract you. The prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for complex thinking such as decision-making and problem-solving, has a novelty bias—it is easily distracted by anything new.
That’s why e-mail can be such a productivity killer. Every time a new message arrives, your prefrontal cortex nudges you to stop whatever you’re doing and see what it is.
The best solution is to keep your e-mail account closed most of the time, opening it to check for new messages only when you take breaks from a project. But if you cannot do this because you sometimes receive e-mails that require immediate attention, at least reduce the number of e-mails that interfere with your focus. Two potential ways to do this…
• Open a new e-mail account, and give its address to only your most important contacts. Keep this e-mail account open on your computer desktop, but leave other e-mail accounts closed most of the time.
• Use your e-mail program’s filter settings to automatically sort e-mails by categories into subfolders rather than into your main e-mail in-basket.
