Practical Ways to Organize Your Thoughts

Do you need help organizing all the thoughts and ideas swirling around in your head? Are you looking for some practical ways to not only capture your bright ideas but to organize them in a useful way?

Organizing your thoughts may very well be one of the most challenging organization projects on which you’ll ever work. Fortunately, however, there are many ways that you can tackle this job. You can use a number of different methods to capture your thoughts and then begin the process of organizing them into useful categories.

The following 5 suggestions for organizing your thoughts are not intended to be an exhaustive list but rather a collection of easy-to-implement ideas that you can use to get started.

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1. Organize the physical space in which you generate your creative ideas

One of the most important keys to being able to focus on getting organized is having a conducive work environment for effectively managing all those incoming thoughts and notions that might not be quite so productive if they were simply allowed to remain floating around in your head. That’s why you should spend a little time thinking about the physical space that you work in.

Specifically, remove or at least limit all distractions from your immediate workspace.

You may even want to create a separate “personal-thinking zone” that consists of one empty chair and nothing else.

You can sit in that space for 10, 15 or 30 minutes and think without interruption about anything you want – allowing your mind to wander and wander until it lands on something of interest.

2. Try mind mapping as a way to organize your ideas

A lot of people find that mind mapping is one of the best tools available for helping them map out all those thoughts they have about a certain topic. Mind mapping consists primarily of creating a diagram that includes all relevant thoughts and ideas relating to a specific project, task or problem.

Depending on your personal preferences, you can use either digital or paper formats for this type of visualization.

Paper formats include Post-It notes or notebook paper with key words written out in the middle of the page and then additional ideas added around each central concept.

3. Change your physical workspace to change your mental perspective

When you sit in the same chair or work at the same desk day after day, your mind tends to keep working with whatever thoughts it had when you last sat there.

If you want a different result, try changing your physical surroundings including the time of day and even what clothes you’re wearing.

Just a slight shift in any one of these areas can have a significant impact on your thinking process.

4. Group all similar ideas together

Take a look at every thought you have recorded and begin the process of grouping similar ones into common categories.

You might, for example, group them into different areas that pertain to the same project or event.

Or you might want to create separate category lists for ideas related to specific activities, people, places and things.

5. Break down larger categories into smaller subcategories

Once you’ve created a master list of all your ideas in a given category, you might want to then break each one down into progressively smaller subcategories.

This can help you categorize your thoughts in a logical and helpful way.

You might apply this method to categories such as general activities versus specific tasks or responsibilities within those activities, for example.

These approaches wholly encourage you to take time off from actively thinking about ideas, thoughts, issues, and concerns, and let your subconscious mind take control. If you’ve never used any of these methods, then you may want to give these methods a try.