How I Decluttered My Brain and Organized My Tasks

Before this activity, my mind was always cluttered with a lot of new thoughts and pending tasks. Between my remote job, working on my FYP, and keeping up with the fellowship, it was getting hard to keep track of it all without feeling overwhelmed. With these simple yet powerful activities, I am able to free up my mind for new thoughts while managing my workload. Decluttering my brain through these steps especially using the Pomodoro technique and Google Calendar seems very helpful in regard to organizing these tasks.

Here is a quick look at how the process went for me.

Getting Everything Out of My Head The first step was a brain dump. I just wrote everything down from preparing an Information Security presentation and doing research for my FYP, to simple things like buying groceries or squeezing in a workout.

How did the template help organize my thoughts? Seeing everything in a massive list is stressful at first, but the template helped because it forced me to organize that mess using the Eisenhower Matrix. Instead of seeing a dozen urgent things, I could clearly categorize what needed to be done right now (like my job tasks and the IS presentation) and what could be scheduled for later (like drafting the SRS document). It turned a chaotic mental checklist into a manageable plan.

Time Blocking and Getting to Work Once the list was sorted, I moved to Google Calendar. I picked my main priorities for the day my job shift and working on the SRS document with Abdullah and blocked out specific times for them. Setting a start and end time makes it feel like an actual commitment rather than a vague goal.

When it came time to actually do the work, I used the Pomodoro technique. For my job tasks, I estimated about 5 hours and broke it down into short intervals. After finishing an interval, I rewarded myself with a short walk. For a quicker task like updating my resume, I just used a 10-minute timer and rewarded myself by scrolling through some memes. Knowing a break was coming made it much easier to avoid distractions and just get the work done.

Looking Forward Do I plan on doing this again regularly, and what will I do to improve the experience? Yes, I definitely plan on making this a regular habit. The mix of time blocking and the Pomodoro timer worked really well for me. To improve the experience next time, I’ll probably adjust the Pomodoro intervals depending on the task. A short timer is great for basic tasks, but for deep-focus work like FYP research or coding, stretching the interval to 40 or 45 minutes might work better so I don’t break my focus right when I get into the zone.

Overall, this was a great way to clear out the mental clutter and actually focus on execution.

Tags: #AmalAcademy #Batch379 #Productivity #TimeManagement #Pomodoro