Falling asleep is about letting your brain calm down. How can you calm down if you are expecting it to remember something for tomorrow? You can't do both at once.
Keep a pad of paper and a pen next to your bed. When something is keeping you awake, write it down and try falling asleep again. I bet you'll be asleep soon.
This technique also works if something is worrying you or making you angry. Worry keeps us awake because we're trying to remember to do something about what's worrying us. Anger keeps us awake because we're trying to remember to stay angry! If you write down what's worrying you or making you angry, your brain can relax a little because you know the pad of paper will be there in the morning.
Even better—call your phone number at work and leave yourself voice mail. This works from anywhere there is a phone. This also eliminates the chance that you'll forget to take your note into work!
Many cell phones and MP3 players include voice recorders . Get in the habit of using them so you don't lose your good ideas.
An Environment to Encourage Focus
Lack of focus doesn't just come from external interruptions. We are also to blame—we turn on music, we have magically updating screen backgrounds, we have IRC chat rooms scrolling and instant message clients trying to catch our attention. Clutter distracts the eye, which distracts the brain. A messy desktop (both physical and on the computer) is full of distractions.
Spend a few minutes cleaning up your desk. Personally, I find it very difficult to clean my desk, so I've developed an office cleaning mantra:
When in doubt, throw it out.
I then follow this three-step plan:
File the things that can be filed.
Take the unfinished items and put them in a stack to be done soon.
Put all the remaining stuff in a large envelope marked, 'If I haven't opened this three months from now, I can throw it out.' Then seal the envelope.
Three months from now it will take extreme willpower to throw out the envelope without looking at the contents. The point is that I don't spend a lot of time thinking about each item and worrying that I might need it later. When deciding to throw out the envelope I repeat the following mantra:
When in doubt, throw it out. If I ever do need it, I can ask the source for a copy.
I've also found it useful to take down posters, calendars, and other things that are in my direct line of vision. I still have many posters, they just aren't in my direct view. When I'm sitting at my desk facing my computer, I want blank walls, nothing distracting.
Finally, once you have a visually uncluttered work environment, do the same for your computer. Remove icons from your desktop; turn off all instant messenger clients, music players, stock tickers, and news tickers; and close your email program. I'm an email addict, and if I know I have new email, I read it. I could spend my whole day just waiting for the next email message. Instead, it's much better to open your email program every two to three hours, read everything, and close the program. I don't worry about missing urgent messages. If it is so urgent that the world will end, I'm sure someone will walk by my office and tell me (or perhaps I'll see a vision telling me what to do).
Two things that have added to my productivity: a significant reduction in playing computer games and staying off IM when I need to get work done.
--Victor Raymond http://www.livejournal.com/users/badger2305
Spend a few minutes right now doing all these things.
No, really, stop reading and do them. I promise you this book will be here when you're done. I know you like the things that distract you and hate to see them go. They like you, too. That's why they are always popping up and saying, 'Look at me! Look at me!' Get rid of them.
Tip
Don Aslett has written a number of books about getting rid of clutter both in the home and in the office. My favorite is
I've met people who say they work better with a lot of distractions, like having a TV or radio playing in the background. When we're younger and don't care as much about discipline, having a lot of
