Do you feel like your brain is scrambled? Do you try to start one thing on your to-do list, only to find out an hour later, that you have been down a rabbit hole because you opened a browser window on your computer and ended up on Facebook or YouTube watching videos mindlessly? Do the notifications on your phone stop you from what you are doing and pull you off track?

Scrambled Egg Brain

If you are suffering from symptoms of feeling overwhelmed, lack of concentration, lack of motivation or loss of focus, then welcome to my club. This past weekend I went up to Boston for a 24-hour trip to visit with my best girlfriends.  They were in town for a conference and there was no way I was going to miss seeing the both of them at once!  Karen lives out in California now, and Heidi and I haven’t been able to connect throughout most of the summer because of our schedules.  I NEEDED to see my girls!  I needed to talk to them about all of the feelings I was having.  I needed to know if I was going crazy.

We went to a restaurant for dinner and I felt wound up.  I was so glad to see them but I wasn’t “relaxed”.  It was so bad that even the waiter noticed, sat down next to me, and told me to chill out, take my time, and take a breath and there was no rush to get our order figured out and put in right away.

What Is the Prescription for Scrambled Egg Brain?

I had an excellent conversation with another close friend of mine today and she told me the first thing that I need to do is BREATHE. She nailed it on the head!  I haven’t been breathing.  I am drowning in my own thoughts.  I am my own worst enemy.  Here are four steps to help you get your head back on straight.

1.  Breathe.  Before you work on something you need to focus on, set aside a few minutes to breathe.  If you are about to sit down and work for the day, sit down to meditate first.
2. Learn to say no.  This is a big one.  Since I am new to starting off blogging as a business it’s hard for me to turn away opportunities. I need to be specific and selective with the type of work I am going to do.  I can’t take on jobs just for the sake of making a quick dollar.  The work needs to be purposeful and hopefully will end up turning into more opportunities.  My friend Claudia shared this video today from Shonda Rhimes that I feel is perfect.
3. Take time out for YOU.  If you can’t take care of yourself, how are you going to take care of everything else?  I KNOW that I haven’t been taking care of myself.  I am not getting my endorphin fix from working out and running like I used to.  I have completely fallen off my wagon of running because of the heat these past few weeks.  I have to stop making excuses and start moving.
4. Set your intentions.  This is key for me.  Once my goals and intentions are in place, everything else will fall into place.

Unplug

I found out that one more thing has been helpful to me in the past week.  I am intentionally leaving my phone in another room when I am done working for the day.  My next step is going to be to turn off notifications so that I don’t have to see every email or tweet that comes across.  Rather than having it pushed to me, I would rather go fetch the emails on my time.  Same for other notifications.  I feel that today’s habits are now ruining the way we think, act, and socialize.  I want to get back to the old way of doing things.  Like when you went on vacation and didn’t have a laptop with you, you couldn’t check your email until you got home!  Imagine that???

Do you feel like your brain is scrambled?  Are you overwhelmed?  I would love to hear how you are handling it.