A cluttered mind makes for a cluttered life
Everything that you hope to do in the world begins internally, and it's a tragedy every time you allow
The mess that's going on in your mind to limit your potential dreams,
Ideas, and self-expression in the world the way you organize your thoughts will impact
everything that you do. Do not make the mistake of forgetting this.
Mental clarity touches your opinions your willpower the decisions that you make to move forward
You are the one responsible for propping yourself up in life for expecting the best from yourself and absolutely nothing less
So I'm gonna share with you how I organize my thoughts
The goal here is to have systems, tools, and a general approach to your thoughts and how you manage them.
This is gonna be a video packed with information
So feel free to pause rewind or re-watch the video as many times as necessary to absorb everything.
I believe what I'm gonna share applies to everything from writing a book to starting a business online.
It's because again everything originates here. Time stamps to everything are gonna be available in the description.
I'm not sure to what degree you can control your thoughts if at all,
But I do believe you can control what you do about them.
And that's where I choose to place my focus my
Philosophy on a very basic level is that this is a muscle organizing
Your thoughts is not easy, especially as thoughts and emotions are deeply intertwined and you know, they're very complex
Sometimes it's hard to know where they come from or why they're happened
So organizing thoughts takes work, and there's every indication
This is going to be an extremely important skill in the 21st century so that you can navigate the world avoid getting taken advantage of
There's a ton of reasons. This is a muscle that you want to build. This is a muscle
I'm trying to build in a variety of ways and simply put I see this as a cycle of internal external internal external
There's a really strong link between the internal and external world. I'm gonna get back to that stick with me
You're gonna see a pattern here. Okay, very first thing let's say you have an idea
Maybe it feels genius
Maybe it sounds crazy even in your head
Maybe it doesn't make sense at all. I don't care, it legitimately doesn't matter write it down.
There's one piece of advice that I can give it is to write everything down. Why? I consider my brain like a computer.
Computers have two main ways of storing information
The RAM also known as memory and the hard disk also known as storage
Storage is spacious and long-term with slow to access while memory is quick but temporary and limited.
The thoughts pinging around in your head are eating up your brain ram
You have a very limited amount of space and you need to be constantly freeing up as much space as possible
There's a ton of crap in there. Thanks to an over stimulating 21st century world
This is the cost of having everything at our fingertips
If you're thinking about Milanese architecture, how pasta is made, or why Julia isn't responding to your texts
You're not focusing on your priorities, tracking your goals, or expanding on that exciting idea
You had just before you turn off the lights last night.
Writing things down gets them out of your RAM and safely stored it somewhere else. You can go back to it whenever you want
I find that this helps with anxiety too. It feels like taking a weight off my shoulders, like I'm clearing the debris
I write my list of to do is using todoist
I used to do that in my bullet journal
That also works really well. As soon as I have to send an email to somebody, sign a contract, hit a deadline, go back groceries
It goes there I use Google keep to store random ideas that pop up in my brain
things I want to go back to, suggestions
I received for movies, websites, restaurants,
Italian words that I want to memorize. I like Google keep because it's fast and automatic and I've been using it for several years
But any kind of program or software will work as long as you're able to easily record your thoughts
It can be digital or analog as long as it's really accessible
I write down how I'm feeling emotionally in a daily journal. I have another one where I scribble random gibberish that's occupying my attention
I think Tim Ferriss might have introduced me to the idea of that one
It's just for your monkey brain to go crazy write about what you're afraid of, write about what you're grateful for, write about how
Incredible Italians sound when they're pissed off
I swear this country feels like one enormous play and now I'm speaking with my hands like they're
Converting me! Many of us have this very silly idea that artists or entrepreneurs are struck by inspiration
Lightning from the god of creativity. In the very first words they sit down to write, the very first
Brushstrokes they brush, the very first time the hit record are all masterpieces and that that's the final result. That is not reality
Delete that from your head right now
And because of this very false idea, what many of us try to do myself
included is kind of try to edit things before they come out or as they're coming out and
And avoid saying something dumb. That's a shame because it's not really embracing the process. Don't take yourself
So seriously.
What I propose is to take the time that you need to externalize as much as you can. Delay the editing process as
much as you can, get everything out so that you can see it all in front of you. There is
Science to back this up.
We can see things more clearly. We can see what we have
Access to where our starting point is what isn't working, create bullet points, create a web of ideas,
Take voice notes. Try things out to see what works for you, but whatever you do
Do not keep it in your brain. Then when you're ready when you've put it all out there
you may begin the next step, which is
Editing I took a screenwriting class a few years ago and the biggest takeaway I got from the whole
Experience was to try to tell as much story as possible in as few words as possible
Less is more. The question to always be asking yourself is "Why?" constantly why "Why do I feel drawn to this?"
"Why am I doing this in the first place?"
The answer could be as simple as to share my experience or to solve this problem that my community is facing
You do not need to have everything figured out
But if you're at least on the right track in the direction of what could potentially be an answer to
This why question then you're already ahead of 95% of the people. Try to figure out the core of whatever it is
You're doing, what you're willing to fight for all of this writing and editing and basically
Pre-production if you will is of utmost
Importance. Do you think I just sit down and fart out the videos that I create?
Absolutely not. I spend at least as much time planning a shooting and then eight times that amount editing
I want to deliver as clear a message as possible and to do so I have to be clear in my own mind
That for me is what intentionality is about. Okay. Remember what I said about?
Internal/external that whole cycle. Well that was internal now, let's go to external you've drafted some ideas for the presentation
You want to give or the video game you want to create or the nonprofit that you want to start. Wonderful.
You still have a long way to go.
Ideas are like grapes in a vineyard
If you don't test them out, if you don't make them suffer a little bit or a lot
Then you don't know how they're gonna come out in the final result
You will not have fine wine and we want fine wine. How do you test out your ideas?
My favorite way is by sharing them with people through conversation or debate. I do this with video ideas
I do this with the thoughts that I have on material that I'm listening to or reading lately when I'm
Confronting complex emotions. Talk to intelligent people that will be honest with you
This can be people that you know and trust but also make sure to talk to people with different
Viewpoints and backgrounds these two categories may overlap
They may not, people with viewpoints that are different than yours may successfully shift or reorganize your thoughts on a topic
by introducing a counterpoint or
Something that you hadn't considered and that's a good thing. That can ultimately strengthen your ideas and how you present them
This is called intellectual diversity
Unfortunately, there are a lot of places where this is absolutely not a consideration anymore and I think the world needs more
of that
handled in a healthy way
Because we all need healthy feedback and criticism
so what I would say, what I try my best to do and this is sometimes very hard is to present your ideas as
Clearly as you can and then listen to what other people have to say about it, this is scary
It's way easier to stick with people that just think like you and agree with you or better yet
To not share your ideas at all, but that is not gonna get you very far
You know, you're not playing this game by yourself. This doesn't just have to happen in the form of conversation
Although I do think that's super important. You can listen to articulate people experts in different fields and
and observe how they present their ideas and and how they say what they want to say another way to do
This is posting things online. And this is a little bit tricky. It's what I'm doing right now by posting this video
Sharing my thoughts on this topic, but it could also come in the form of let's say posting on a subreddit, in a forum
So that other people can debate ideas
like for example
the mental clarity
Subreddit that I created and I will link down below.
the tricky thing here is that not all feedback was created equal a faceless anonymous
Somebody stranger out there
Might not have your best interest at heart that might translate into very poor feedback conversely
It might translate into very brutally honest valuable feedback because they don't care what your response will be. Keep these things in mind
okay, this is
Tricky very subtle in general though
I think I prefer face-to-face interactions and the feedback I get that way and thus continues the cycle
You know going back to the drawing board
Putting out your thoughts organizing them, presenting them, refining them, adding to them if you do it
Well, this process should kill the week ideas. It should reveal the strong ones and this is a very abstract process
Okay, it's something that you have to do for yourself and test out for yourself to figure out how you operate
None of this is black and white. I do find that the more regular I am about
Offloading the RAM in my brain, putting out ideas, connecting the dots, the clearer
I feel about things
This all helps me
Better understand how I'm feeling or what I'm thinking about certain topics and how to move forward
I also want to share a series of techniques and tactics if you will that will help with this process "Without great solitude
No serious work as possible." Those were Picasso's words not mine. I find this extremely applicable here
Simply put too much stimulus is a bad thing. Don't overload your system
Everyone is different
But I find that personally I need a lot of time by myself to really get to the root of things
physical and digital spaces have a huge impact on
How clearly you're able to think if your office or your living room or wherever it is that you do your work is a mess
You have two options either clean it up or find another place to work
I just can't think clearly in a place that's visually cluttered for me that represents unfinished tasks
Things that can pull away my attention and pull me off in other directions. I'm very easily distracted believe it or not
so I try always to give myself the best odds and
Create an environment that allows me to do my best work. As for digital spaces, it's the same exact thing
But I created already a seven part series on that
so I'll just
link to that if you want help with that. Everyone and their mother has correctly pointed out that a lot of great ideas come while
In the shower, you know
What else works for me running. We have to really consider how our biology still plays a huge role in our lives
physical exercise other than the fact that it's healthy and it's great for anxiety management and whatnot does a great job of
Occupying my body and lets my mind
be free to roam and so when I'm running I like to listen to music and I let my
brain
just kind of try and connect the dots and
figure out solutions to things that I'm stuck on this process of taking thoughts or feelings and
Dissecting them leads to something deeper and that's the goal for me
This is all huge exercise in trying to learn more about myself because it is always the stuff under the surface
That is the most interesting and when all else fails as James Clear puts it "It's crazy
How often I feel like I need to resolve some big problem in my life when all I really need is one of the following
a glass of water a
10-minute walk outside a good night of sleep three simple things that resolve many of the stresses and anxieties of daily life."
I've started applying these things in my daily life and it is unbelievable how effective they are
There's no need to reinvent the wheel here. This video was sponsored by Skillshare
I really like the company and what they stand for and also the people that work there they offer tens of thousands of courses online
In all kinds of topics like photography or business
I think this is the future and the classes that I like the most are the ones that help me organize myself and how I do things
Three classes I highly recommend are this one by simon Sinek on how he presents his thoughts and ideas in speech and
presentation form and these two on how to use to do is to organize yourself that is literally how I learned to use todoist and
It's been super helpful in kind of creating more order in my life
We've teamed up to offer two month free trial to any of their classes if you use the link in the description below
I'm also really grateful to have their support because it has allowed me to go above and beyond in the production of these videos and
It's insanely affordable with an annual subscription coming in at less than $10 a month
That's pretty incredible to me considering how inaccessible all this stuff was for the majority of human history
Like I said, the link is down below. Anyway, this is big stuff
Organizing my thoughts has been liberating in many ways, and I hope this video helps. Thank you for watching and I'll see you soon