Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Frenzied paralysis – so many things in my mind that I cannot do any of them. I make a list to clear my mind and move from paralysis to action.

I can’t think. Well, that’s not true. I guess the problem is that I am thinking too much. Well, that is not true, either. I guess the problem is that I am thinking about too many different things. Each second I think about ten different things. Round and round and round and…When will this stop? When will I be able to focus on few enough things so that I can write or read or just get up off the couch and do one constructive thing?

Panting, staring, motionless.

A solution for me:

Make a list.

Make a list? That doesn’t do anything. True, it doesn’t do anything physical, but, for me at least, it does a great thing both mentally and emotionally.

Making a list clears my mind.

All those ten-things-per-second that are jumping in and out of my mind are now on a piece of paper. They are out of my mind. My mind is left with only a few items that I can manage without falling into panting, staring, motionless and other such frenzied paralysis.

All those ten-things-per-second that were jumping in and out of my mind were important. Otherwise they wouldn’t be in my mind. I have not erased them; I have not discarded them. I still have them, but now they are on a piece of paper. I can now work on them one at a time or I can leave them on the paper and later decide that they were not that important.

Every few weeks in my journal I find a list of items. I also read words of relief after the list. Every few days I make a list on a sticky note on my desk. My trash can has many of these crumpled lists with lines scratched through each item.

This technique of clearing my mind by making a list works wonders for me. I can’t say if it will do any good for any other person. I suggest you try it. If it works, please use it. If not, try something else until you find what works for you.