Thought Tweet #468 There's no question: unfinished business gnaws away at brain-energy.

The Thinking Behind The Tweet

There's only so much energy in your brain. If you leave unfinished business - paper clutter - around your office then it serves as an ongoing reminder of your...unfinished business. Even if that unfinished business does not register consciously in your thoughts it does gnaw at your subconscious. And that gnawing consumes energy...energy your brain can put to far better use.

As the saying goes, "Out of sight, out of mind".

Take Command of Your Day…and don’t call that process Time Management

Time Management is a misnomer.

Really, when we say those words we are talking about Task Management and Self-Management. And, there is an important distinction between managing tasks and managing self. The key distinction is one must precede the other. Self-Management is the first thing.

Two of the greatest gifts a person can possess are intelligence and self-control.

Both of these gifts are housed in the brain…our emotion and information processing powerhouse.

If we want to manage our workload or ‘To Do List’ of actions and tasks then we must first manage our thoughts.

We can manage our thoughts by:

• wanting to – truly desiring to - change for the better,
• using our intelligence – focusing and thinking - to figure out how,
• planning the habit – a Good Habit – of self-monitoring,
• planning a habit – a Good Habit – of self-regulating,
• organizing - creating - better ways to think about and perform work tasks
• using our will power to initiate, maintain, and grow those Good Habits of thought,
• backing up our Good Habits of thought with persistent, consistent, goal-aimed actions, and 
• taking on, focusing on, and attending to one task at a time. 

When we manage our thoughts that way and back them up with actions we make full use of our innate, but often overlooked, gift of self-control. We are organized. When we do these things we are able to do a much better job of handling crises. And, of even more importance, we are able to do a much better job of avoiding crises. 

When we have mastered self-control we have mastered tasks...and time, as it always has, will take care of itself.

Link to An Introduction to Time Management - Part 1

Link to An Introduction to Time Management - Part 2

Link to 'Time' Management 

Link to Successful People Have More Time

The business world rewards clarity.

Brain-energy: we should put that to its best use.

When people, processes, and situations are clear business can be both effective and efficient…and all that leads to pleasing bottom-line profits.

When people are not clear other people misunderstand them and their messages. Misunderstandings add distraction to an already-complex-enough world and workday. Misunderstandings are time-wasters and money-wasters and, even worse, they are energy-wasters. Specifically, when people are not clear brain-energy is wasted because it is consumed by confused thoughts.

When processes are not clear they are not understood and they are not followed. This creates confusion and it multiplies the amount of decisions required. This consumes and wastes brain-energy. To the extent people disagree with one another’s interpretations of processes or decisions about processes, again, brain-energy is wasted.

When situations are not clear the people in those situations must use extra brain-energy to get their bearings and determine proper actions. When people deal with unknowns it places special demands on their brains and it often triggers negative emotions and mindsets such as fear, doubt, worry, frustration, and anger. These negatives consume brain-energy.

Every person has a limited amount of brain-energy. Experts say the human brain consumes about 20% of the energy consumed by the human body. The brain represents about 2% of body weight…yet, it consumes 20% of the energy.

Where does all that energy go?

In simple terms, the brain uses up the energy doing 4 things:

1. Overseeing the operations of the body…all those involuntary but necessary  things we take for granted…like breathing, growing fingernails, and digesting food
2. Handling other subconscious things…all those things that few if any of us really understand…like, emotions, where do hunches come from?, and how did we ever come up with that weird dream?
3. Processing incoming stimuli…what we see, hear, feel, smell, and taste…perhaps more?
4. In conjunction with the mind, processing conscious thought, which leads to conscious action and more conscious thought 

These 4 things are ranked.

Conscious thought doesn’t get the gold, or the silver, or even the bronze. Thought sits in fourth place.

That’s why people say they do not have enough time.

The neurons in their brains are very busy doing lots of other things.

Link to An Introduction to Time Management - Part 1

Link to An Introduction to Time Management - Part 3

Link to 'Time' Management 

Link to Successful People Have More Time