Environment - Organization

Our frontal lobes, which govern executive function, have a limited capacity to manage tasks, impulse control, attention direction, and distraction protection. Organizational systems help offload this burden, allowing the brain to focus more effectively on the task at hand.

Operationalizing Tasks, Temporal Planning, Prioritization, Knuckleheaded Stuff

For those prone to distraction (e.g., ADHD), getting pulled away from a task can lead to inefficiently restarting from the beginning. Organizational systems provide a reference point to quickly resume where you left off.

Examples: Like a grocery list that allows you to efficiently shop even if distracted, versus trying to remember everything mentally and getting sidetracked.

Limitation of Frontal Lobe Capacity, Knuckleheaded Stuff

When starting a new organizational method, it will initially feel less efficient as your brain adjusts to the new system. Push through this phase by focusing on the long-term benefits and reasons for getting organized.

Components of an Organizational System, Limitation of Frontal Lobe Capacity

“At the very beginning when we implement an organizational system, the first pitfall you need to understand is that implementing a system is going to cost you more than it benefits you.”

Prioritization helps manage the overwhelm of juggling many tasks. Make a list of everything that needs to get done, then categorize by urgency:

1. What must be done today?
2. What needs to be done soon?
3. What would be nice to do at some point?
   Actionable Steps:
4. Brain dump all tasks into a master list
5. Assign each task a priority level (1, 2, or 3)
6. Focus on priority 1 tasks first

Operationalizing Tasks, Temporal Planning

Utilize a calendar to assign tasks to specific times. This frees up mental space, as you no longer need to worry about when something will get done.
Examples: Doctors managing hundreds of patients by scheduling appointments rather than mentally juggling them all.
Interconnected Ideas/Backlinks: Prioritization, Operationalizing Tasks

Operationalizing involves taking a complex, abstract task (e.g., “find a job”) and breaking it down into concrete sub-tasks that can be acted upon (e.g., update resume, search job boards, apply to X positions).
Actionable Steps:

1. Write down the large, abstract task
2. Brainstorm all the sub-tasks required to accomplish it
3. Break each sub-task down into the smallest possible actions
4. Organize these small actions in a logical sequence
   Analogies: Teaching a young child to “clean your room” versus giving them specific instructions like “put toys in the toy box” and “put books on the shelf”.

Prioritization, Temporal Planning, Knuckleheaded Stuff

“Knuckleheaded stuff” refers to minor tasks that don’t feel important but still require attention (e.g., paying bills, responding to certain emails). Build in time to handle these items so they don’t become distractions.
Examples: Doctors scheduling “admin time” to fill out paperwork and surveys.
Actionable Tips:

• If a small task takes less than 2 minutes, do it immediately
• Schedule blocks of “admin time” to batch process minor to-dos

Limitation of Frontal Lobe Capacity, Prioritization

“You need some way to slot time into your day or your week, where you take care of all the little tasks that your mind is holding on to that can interfere with the bigger tasks.”

Reflective Questions:

• What “knuckleheaded stuff” do I need to make time for in my own organizational system?
• How can I push through the initial inefficiency of implementing an organizational system to reap the long-term benefits?
• What complex, abstract task in my life can I operationalize to make it more approachable and actionable?

Take your to-do list and organize it from things you can do TODAY, SOON, or EVENTUALLY. After you’ve ranked all the items, focus on completing the to-do list from top to bottom.

Things I have to do TODAY

Things I should do SOON

Things I should do EVENTUALLY

1. This is your chance to offload everything filling up your mind onto this sheet and decompress your mind-clutter. Write down all the items you want to get done.
2. From there, the following pages have different ways to help you prioritize and pick out what order you should tackle the items in.
3. Lastly, take a look at how you can plan out your schedule on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis to complete your list in a realistic manner. Start small with daily schedules for one week. Once you’ve found a format that works, move to weekly then monthly schedules for your to-do list!

Todo

Take the items listed in the “Things I have to do TODAY” section and plan out what you can realistically accomplish today.

# Weekly Prioritization

## Do these tasks first (Important and Urgent)

-

## Schedule these tasks (Important but Not Urgent)

-

## Delegate these tasks (Urgent but Not Important)

-

## Delete these tasks (Not Urgent and Not Important)

-

• With the tasks “Weekly Prioritization” chart, take the “what you should do first” column and estimate how long it will take you to do them.
• Next, use this weekly calendar system to plan out where you can fit in your to-do items within your week.

Weekly prioritization is basically The Eisenhower Matrix