I’d like to introduce you to something I call mid-sentence panic moments. For me they looked something like this:

Talking to friends... talking about how good lunch is… [ridiculously loud inhale]… [sheer panic washes over my face]… “I forgot...my midterm is tomorrow!”

…lunch with friends fades into the background and all I can think about now is how stressed I am.

In my experience it’s quite normal for students to experience worry that comes about as a result of either forgetting about one or more responsibilities or becoming overwhelmed by thinking of all they have to do. 

Don’t worry though, this has more to do with the design of our brains than anything else. The neuroscience behind it all is quite complicated, but the thing to remember is that our brains are resource cheapskates.

The average person can only hold three or four things in their working memory - or active mind - at once, according to science. 

I know what you’re thinking: “Four things?! That doesn’t even begin to cover all that I have to juggle just to get through the day!”

There’s no need to get all worked up though. We can use our short-term, working memory to create tools and habits that will help us capture our thoughts, to-do’s, and creative ideas in places we can easily retrieve them for processing later.

All that said, let’s get started on creating a systematic process for capturing everything you are responsible for so you can finally relax and know that you’re not letting anything slip through the cracks. 

STEP 1: Acknowledge your brain is a meat computer and it’s not as powerful as you think.

Acknowledging that our brain has limits and finite resources is the first step learning to use it more effectively.

The way our brains process information is somewhat chaotic, which is why staying focused on the task at hand when you are trying to remember what you have to do for the rest of the day tends to be difficult. 

I like to call the brain a “meat computer,” because it helps my students understand the principle that the mind is best used as a computer processor, not a hard drive. What that means is the mind is an excellent place to create ideas and do work; however, your brain simply doesn’t have the RAM to hold every single thing you are supposed to remember all at once.

That’s why it’s important to admit that your brain can’t do it all!

STEP 2: Acknowledge that writing things down gets everything out of your head and into a space where you can actually work with your ideas and responsibilities.

You have a good brain, but you’re using it all wrong if you think you can get away with trying to organize your life without writing anything down. 

Paper - real, tangible, crinkly paper- is essentially an external hard drive for your brain. You can use that to offload your brain flow, leaving more memory space in your brain so you can actually think and get things done. 

You don’t have to use paper for the next step if you don’t want to. You can use a Google doc or any other app that you like to use to organize your work and ideas.

The most important thing to do to keep from worrying about when your next mid-sentence panic moment will strike is to download everything that has your attention to some form of external memory.

STEP 3: Go on a Scavenger Hunt - Find everything you’re responsible for doing and write it down.

This part’s actually pretty fun. Where do you source your daily “to-do’s”? Let’s actually go around and find out, collecting the bits and pieces from all the various sources. 

• Your syllabus, if your teacher is actually organized and keeps a schedule of all the assignments due in the class. 

• Your Google Classroom assignment list.

• Your online learning tool assignment list.

• That scrap of paper you hopefully used to write down what your teacher was saying as everyone stormed out of class.

• Your teacher’s assignment handout that is hopefully somewhere you can find it.

• A text from your boss confirming your extra shift this weekend, the one you don’t normally work.

As you go around to these different places, you should be adding your to-do’s to a completely freeform, uncategorized, un-prioritized list. 

Once you’ve collected all the things other people are expecting you to do, sit for a minute and think about all the things you want do this week or this month just for yourself or for fun and add them to your list. 

If you actually took the time to do Step 3... you, my friend, are going places! 

If you did need some help getting started, email me. I’ve made a downloadable worksheet for you.

In case you missed it, read the first part of our series: Becoming Your Own Productivity Hero, and learn some tips and tricks for getting rid of digital distractions.

Read our next post tomorrow to learn more about how to plan out each of your to-do’s, give them a priority level, and figure out what the very next step to accomplishing all your goals is.

As always, if you need an online tutor for just about anything - including getting organized and being productive with your time - let us know!