One of my most viewed posts recently has been “Oops, I have an Empty Brain.”

It highlighted the need to be able to put everything into a trusted system to allow your brain to focus on the one thing you have chosen to do without it constantly worrying about things it might forget.

Anyone with any knowledge of “Getting Things Done” (GTD) by David Allen will recognise this achievement as being the primary reason GTD works so well for so many people.  Just for your information, I achieve it using just one piece of software, (eProductivity enabled Lotus Notes), a notepad and a few files.

But it occurs to me that this need to empty the brain is as important, if not more important, in an area of life not often associated with productivity.

Baggage

Do you let the “Baggage” in your life stop you from being all that you can be?  Are you unable to follow your dream because something you’ve carried from a long time ago weighs you down even now?

It may not even be a big heavy thing.  But weight is relative.  Fill a glass up with water and estimate how heavy it is.  Not too heavy eh?  Now hold it out in front of you.  Still OK probably.  But then try and go through life holding onto that glass of water, always there and always in your vision.  It won’t be long before its heavy enough to almost wrench your arm out of its socket.

Even small things will weigh us down, cripple us and render us almost useless if we allow them to always be demanding the attention of our heart and mind.

Are you unable to follow your dream because something you’ve carried from a long time ago weighs you down even now?

Hurts done by others

What sort of things am I talking about?  The most common ones are when we’ve been hurt or betrayed by others.

Do you feel like a friend has stabbed you in the heart?  Are you carrying around any anger from the past?  Any bitterness?  The feeling that you want revenge?

Picture by furiobrady

Hurts done by you

Maybe it’s not something someone’s done to you, but it’s about something you’ve done in the past.  Some decision you made that wasn’t the best one you’ve ever made.

Do you live your life in regret?  Do you hate yourself, berate yourself or even spend all your time having a little pity party for one?

What can you do about it?

We need to empty our brains of these things just as much as we need to empty them of tasks to be done.  But it’s not as easy as writing them down on a (trusted) list so you can forget them until you need them.  These need a different solution.

So what is it?  Well, actually, when next I post on this subject in the not too distant future, I’ll tell you first what NOT to do, then in the final post, we’ll look at real solutions.

Related posts:

1. Oops, I have an Empty Brain I’m blogging about GTD and eProductivity. If you want to...
2. GTD for Kids Being a really big fan of GTD (Getting Things Done)...
3. GTD and eproductivity Opportunity This is for all those people who use Lotus Notes...
4. 4 Reasons Leaders should GTD GTD (Getting Things Done) by David Allen is much more...
5. Getting the hang of contexts in GTD For quite some time I’ve been banging on about just...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.