Declutter: back to basics

The period of October had been slightly overwhelming for me. Yet recently in the moment of procrastination I had an epiphany while looking back at past entries in space - i.e. stalking myself on my blog. It's quite interesting how this space has provided manifestations of what worked well and what didn't, a place that accounted my own personal development in terms of my mental well-being. yea, there were a lot of stupid moments, but that's all part of the process right hehe.

Anyway, I decided to look back at what I did at the start of the year and pick up certain practices that had worked really well previously but somehow got lost over the course of the months. It still somewhat blows my mind how a simple change in what you do and how you think can create wonders how productive one can be without burning out.

In summary, here's three things that enabled me to overcome that feeling of being overwhelmed and allowed me to keep pace:

(1) Write down a laundry list of everything you need to do

It can be so daunting at times to see the endless amount of items to do at first but it frees up so space in your mental at that very instant. Creating a mental to-do list can create such unnecessary use of your mental capacity. Having to think about problems that can't be solved at that very moment or just trying to retain the information can be exhausting and it almost amounts to nothing. And at least for me, I have this huge tendency to feel that need to finish working on every task in one-sitting (which obviously isn't possible) lest I miss out on anything. 

Listing every item down frees up so much mental space, enabling one to strategise/cultivate each task can be approached in the most efficient way possible.

As the saying goes, the faintest ink is more powerful than the strongest memory.

(2) Stay in the present, work on each task step by step 

It's always nice to think about the end of the tunnel, but sometimes the end can feel/be pretty far. I have that tendency to think about what's the next task moving forward, getting ahead of myself all the time even before the first step is completed. Somehow the first step never gets completed.. 

This point reminded me about how I should break things into small manageable effortless - something I initially did at the start of the year. It makes tasks seem so easy and effortless, there's really no rhyme or reason to procrastinate. Before you know it, the big tasks gets done through the series of small steps you took to get there. This ted talk sums it up nicely (I have watched this countless times.. as a reminder oops)

(3) Be fully focus and fully at rest when you need to

I think it's always easy to have your mind on run mode on what's the next thing to do, what do we need to do next even in moments of respite and this can be so exhausting. When it is truly time to rest, put that phone away, sit down, relax, read a good book, have some nice coffee/beverage and give yourself a mental break you deserve. Spend proper quality time with someone - you tend to build better relationships and have very meaningful conversations with people when you are fully present ;)

Alright that's it, I enjoyed writing this entry :) back to work~