How to retrain your brain to complete tasks.

Use this trick to improve productivity now!

Jedi minds, that is what we all need. To have the power to still our minds, focus and fully complete each task…well that is the dream isn’t it?  However, this is not how most minds work. Many people go through a day and see all the projects and tasks that they have started but never finish. If you suffer from issues of focus and attention here is one simple trick to begin to train your brain to finish what it starts.

“Touch it once”

Before I adapted to this concept my morning routines (and household) looked something like this…

I would wake up and go to start the coffee machine, open the fridge to pull out the coffee tin (that is where we keep ours), then I would see that my kids lunches were not finished, so of course that needs to be handled.  After finishing the lunches, I would shimmy on over to place them in the kids backpacks that are housed in the laundry room. Once in the laundry room, I would see my daughter’s soccer shirt that needs to be ready for game day tomorrow, so obviously I start a load of laundry. After the laundry is started its time to wake up the kids and at some point I inevitably glance over and catch sight of the open refrigerator door and the coffee on the counter that was never started and the lunch bags still sitting on top of the washing machine and wonder to myself, how it is that I did not fully accomplish anything? Well, there are many reasons; admittedly, I am a bit focus challenged, I have a lot of things on my mind and many tasks a day that need to be done. So how do I fix this when my “things to do list” will never get smaller? 

The answer is both simple and difficult. My constant mantra now is “touch it once”. If I go to start the coffee and I see those lunch bags I must tell myself (repeatedly) to finish the coffee first and completely, because I will not come back to it. Make the coffee all at once. Touch the coffee tin once and only once and put it back. Sounds simple enough but it does take work and repetitive self-talk. When I go to bring the lunches in and I see the soccer shirt, I have to finish with the lunches because I have already touched them, there is no putting them down and coming back to them. The idea of coming back to a task after I start, is a lie I tell myself that always backfires into chaos.

A few more practical examples of how this works:

*Headed to the mailbox? Bring in the mail and touch it once. Go through the recyclable items first, throw out what you do not want and then place bills wherever they should go to be paid and done with that task. 

*Putting dishes in the sink? Wash them then because you will not come back to them later.

*Read an email knowing that you must respond? Respond now because you will not later.

*Have a form that needs to be signed? Sign it now! Do not put it on the kitchen counter for later, because it will be forgotten.

*Got an invite that needs to go in your phone calendar? Put it in the minute you get the invite and its done.

“TOUCH IT ONCE” WILL HELP YOU TRAIN YOUR BRAIN TO FOCUS AND IMPROVE TASK COMPLETION.

Try this Daily Organizational Workflow Chart to assist to train your brain at work!

https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/me/listing-editor/edit/1550718336