Thought Downloads

I’ve mentioned before that changing your thoughts and beliefs around being productive is just as important as setting up systems and schedules to keep the spaces around you and your mind organized. 

Managing your mind is key to achieving any result you wish to create in your life – I promise!   

Fortunately, there’s a super easy exercise that can help you get clarity around why you think and believe what you do.  It’s called a “thought download.”   

To do a thought download, take a sheet of paper and spend the next 5-10 minutes writing down all your thoughts that are at the forefront of your mind.  I like to think of it as a brain dump.  Be sure to get everything out – and don’t edit yourself.  You will be the only person who sees the paper.   

In this blog post, we looked at some examples of beliefs you might have about being organized like, “I am a disorganized person,” or “I’m too busy to make a schedule and stick to it.”  Maybe try doing a thought download about those kinds of beliefs you have that don’t serve you. 

As you write down your thoughts, keep digging deeper by asking yourself “why” questions - and be sure to record everything that pops up.  

Once you feel like you’ve gotten all of your thoughts down on the paper, go through each sentence and decide which sentences are circumstances and which ones are thoughts.  When doing this exercise, I like to have my clients underline the circumstances and circle the thoughts.   

For example, let’s say a sentence you write down in your thought download looks something like “I’m a messy person.”   

In this case, you’d first underline the words “I’m a person.”  This is something that everyone in the world would agree on. 

Next, you’d circle the words “messy,” because that is not something that everyone would agree on – some people might even think you’re not messy at all.   

Let’s say that after you wrote down the sentence above, you dug a little deeper and asked yourself, “why?”   

Maybe you’d answer the question by writing, “because I can never keep the house picked up.”  Or even, “because I don’t have enough time to put away the laundry every time I do it.” 

In both cases, you’d have to circle each sentence.  Why?  Because they are thoughts, not facts.   

The actual facts are, that you are able to pick up your house sometimes – like before you have guests over, or when your husband is able to help out on the weekends.  And you are also able to get the laundry put away during the weeks that you don’t have to drive carpool every day.  So, not everyone would agree with your “why” thoughts.  Even though, to you, they probably feel like objective facts. 

When you get the sentences in your mind down on paper, and start dissecting them into thoughts and circumstances, it’s so much easier see how they can be negatively impacting your life.  That’s the benefit of doing this exercise! 

I like to do daily thought downloads as part of my morning routine and keep them in a journal.  That way, I have them organized in one place in case I ever want to go back and see what I was thinking at any given time.   

As you do more thought downloads, and make them part of your regular routine, you begin to automatically separate the circumstances from the thoughts in your head – no circling or underlining needed! 

So, why don’t you give it a try?  Give yourself the gift of clarity through regular thought downloads.  I bet you’ll gain a better understanding about what’s holding you back on your journey to becoming a more productive person.