Today we are going to think about all those annoying thoughts floating around your head. You know the ones.
- Whilst you’re playing with your X-Box you remember that you have to hang the washing out.
- On the way to school you remember it is plain clothes day, and you are in your school uniform.
History Lesson: Getting Things Done
The idea of the Mind Dump comes from a book called Getting Things Done (or GTD) by David Allen. The book refers to this exercise as a Mind Sweep.
What’s the point?
The purpose of a Mind Dump is to get on paper all the things, or jobs that need to get done. I have a list in the Study Tools section to help you come up with ideas. The reason why you put it on paper, is that you have a greater chance of completing the task, and then you can forget about forever, or at least for another year if it is your brother’s birthday card.
First Task: Mind Dump
- Get some paper and a pen. It is a good idea to use post it notes of scrap paper cut up into the size of post it notes
- Set a timer and spend 10 minutes thinking about what you need to get done. Write one idea on one piece of paper. Check out the “Triggers for Teenagers” under Study Tools for ideas.
Second Task: Separate Tasks into groups
- To Do Now – Jobs that can be completed right now and would only take 1-5 minutes. Examples include make bed, and take out trash
- School – Jobs that need to be done at school like take library books back, give note to science teacher
- Study – Jobs relating to homework, assignments and exam revision. These jobs don’t include anything already in diary or in study folder. These jobs could be anything overdue though.
- Personal – Jobs relating to yourself, friends and family. Examples include finding a birthday card, washing the car for your mom on downloading some new music.
Tasks for Today
- Now List – complete them all, they should be quick and easy to use
- School list – choose 3, either write reminder in your school diary, or put equipment in school bag
- Study – choose 1 task and do it tonight
- Personal – choose 3 tasks and complete them this week
- Throw all the completed tasks in the bin
- Label 4 plastic page protectors from your Study Folder– Now, School, Study and Personal and put any of the incomplete jobs in there.
Can you think of any other Triggers that I can add to my list? Please put them in the comments section below.
This was Day 4 of the 30 Day Study System.
The 30 Day Study System is also available as a free Ebook
Fill in your details below and you will receive the 30 Day System Ebook plus Workbook. This PDF package is an updated version of the blog posts and includes worksheets and handouts.
Related posts:
{ 3 trackbacks }
{ 0 comments… add one now }