Limalist
Limalist is a creative but ordered way of thinking. It can be used to organise yourself, your home, thoughts, belongings, business, life, or anything that requires braindumping, and then sorting. It centers around exploring a comprehensive list of possibilities and refining them down to a top 5 list.
How to take a limalist approach to brain (or any other type of) clutter:
1. Braindump onto paper or excel etc. no matter how huge or basic, don't try to create order yet, let your brain run wild.
2. If you have braindumped various categories of items, write a list of those categories assigning a number to each (like a legend), then go through numbering each braindumped item with a category number.
3. Go through all items and tick anything that you think is going to need multiple steps. Put a ! at the end of anything that is urgent or has a deadline.
4. Rewrite (or sort if using software) your items into categories, putting ! items first, and ticked items second, with everything else after that.
5. Now you have a semi-prioritised list. Depending on your way of working, you can take the easy wins of the bottom of the list for some feel good dopamine motivation or start with the urgent things and get rid of that stress. For the items that will need multiple steps, its best to jot some basic steps down now, in case you need to prepare anything in advance of starting, and come back to the detail when you get started on that task.
How to take a limalist approach to brain (or any other type of) clutter:
1. Braindump onto paper or excel etc. no matter how huge or basic, don't try to create order yet, let your brain run wild.
2. If you have braindumped various categories of items, write a list of those categories assigning a number to each (like a legend), then go through numbering each braindumped item with a category number.
3. Go through all items and tick anything that you think is going to need multiple steps. Put a ! at the end of anything that is urgent or has a deadline.
4. Rewrite (or sort if using software) your items into categories, putting ! items first, and ticked items second, with everything else after that.
5. Now you have a semi-prioritised list. Depending on your way of working, you can take the easy wins of the bottom of the list for some feel good dopamine motivation or start with the urgent things and get rid of that stress. For the items that will need multiple steps, its best to jot some basic steps down now, in case you need to prepare anything in advance of starting, and come back to the detail when you get started on that task.
Her mind was cluttered with a million layers of things she needed to do, remember, buy, find and achieve, so she sat down and took a limalist approach to braindumping and organising her mind. In the end she had 4 areas she identified and a top 5 to do for each category. This gave her an effective priority list and made the next week extremely productive!
