New Project: Brain Clutter

I have the attention span of a gnat. While there are good days and bad ones, the last week or two I have found it increasingly difficult to focus or get much of anything done. My brain is like a TV that someone keeps changing the channel on.

The whole point of this blog was to help me focus, but my brain is just so overloaded with unnecessary thoughts. It's affecting my sleep. I'm just too tired to do much of anything. Since last week, I've spent most of my day laying in bed, watching TV just to get a break from the constant chatter bouncing around my head.

I was reading Real Mind Control: The 21-Day No-Complaint Experiment, where he describes acomplaintfreeworld.org's method of moving one of those elastic bracelets from one wrist to the other every time you criticize or complain about something to someone. Apparently this can help you break the habit of bitching and moaning.

Well, that article lead me to Can You Rewire Your Brain in Two Weeks? One Man's Attempt. That one described (in great detail) an experiment with Muse, a headband with electrodes that pick up frequency waves from the brain; and it's companion app, Calm, which shows your brain activity and provides meditation instructions in a phone app. The intention being to train you to relax for at least a few minutes a day, which, over time, would rewire your brain into a calmer state.

Of course, I immediately checked it out. I haven't had much luck with meditation. I even have an app on my phone to remind me to do it. When I hear it, I groan and go back to whatever I was doing. But a Muse device costs $299. I can't even justify buying an over-the-door pantry organizer right now. Maybe I'll try just 3 minutes of meditation at a time, instead of shooting for 15.

So, anyway, it occurred to me that my inability to focus is a way bigger problem at the moment than me complaining about my mother-in-law cleaning out her stuffed-to-the-gills car, and dumping it all right next to the front door. There's even a VCR. A VCR! Who the hell gave her a VCR? Everyone knows she won't turn anything down.

Ahem... sorry, as I was saying. I decided to experiment with using the bracelet technique every time I find myself dwelling on past conversations with other people, or running hypothetical conversations that will never happen through my mind. THE most useless information wasting valuable neural real estate.

Of course, I'm counting minutes rather than days of success. I'll report back with my findings.