If I get it all down on paper….

4

March 20, 2013 by travelingsole

Do you ever feel foggy? Brain foggy. That feeling when there are too many things going on inside your head to focus clearly on one thing. You try to read a book but you read the same page a hundred times before you realize what you are doing and can’t remember a thing you just read. You talk to a friend and you can’t actually listen to them at all. You tell a story and half way through when you get distracted for a split second. Once the distraction is gone you totally forget what you were talking about, much less the point of the story. Why do we do that?

At work I keep an updated list of all the things I need to remember to do. I am constantly jotting things down. The notes wouldn’t make any sense to anyone else but it’s enough for me to remember “Oh yes, that needs to get done.” Without that checklist I really would go insane.

When I get home in the evening, my brain hits the shutdown mode. If I plan to go out with friends I have to convince myself before I pull into the garage that “I’m going to shower, change, brush my teeth, and go out of the house again.” If I don’t the “excuse monster” hits me. I will convince myself that whatever I could do is not as important as shutting down for a brain break.

I can’t decide if it’s just the work I do? I have so many things going on in my brain all day and it’s like a bullet bouncing around in there. My brain is in shreds by the end of a day. Is it because of the way I operate at full capacity for so long?

To get my brain organized I make lists. As it says in that beautiful song If I get it all down on paper it’s no longer inside of me. Threatening the life it belongs to… Breathe. Just breathe.

How do you avoid the “foggy brain syndrome?” Sleep? Organization? Vacations?