There were days when my head felt so heavy, and I was lost. It’s even tempting to go from one task to another without finishing any. And this context-switching makes the brain fog worse. What was I working on again?
Trying to look for reasons why I often feel fuzzy in the head, I searched for articles and found one which resonated with me. Here’s an excerpt:
If you believe your brain fog might have more psychological or circumstantial causes – perhaps you’ve been feeling chronically overloaded by having to juggle work responsibilities with parenting, for instance – it might help to making an extra effort to impose some structure on your life, so that you’re not constantly multi-tasking. Focusing on one challenge or responsibility at a time will help to clear the fog.
from What is brain fog? A neuroscientist reveals what causes it and how to get rid of it
Impose some structure in your life.
That’s it!
Context-switching, which is another form of multitasking, only shows a lack of structure while you masquerade productivity with jumping from one work to another, ticking off boxes but not making substantial work progress.
One step in providing structure in your life is making an ordered list of what you should do for the day.
In an ordered list, everything is a priority but sorted according to importance. If you know how to focus on the important stuff instead of the urgent ones, you’re surely a step away from getting the job done.
Another step is to keep yourself from browsing your phone every five or ten minutes.
This means you have to move your phone away out of sight, especially when communication isn’t part of your job or can be entertained later.
If getting the task done, say writing a paper, is the priority, then all else can wait.
Removing distractions helps you be in the flow of what you’re currently working on and allows your mind to focus and make some progress with the task while finishing it piece by piece.
jessa 