Your Doctor is Human Too! What to do if your To Do List is Overwhelming.

After a full week of work, I had planned to get a few things done this weekend, mostly big projects. One of them was smaller. I wanted to write an article for you all. As I started thinking of all the things I needed to do, more and more etched on my mental to do list. I started to feel less and less motivated to do any of these things on the list, and ended up going to the gym, washing my car, cleaning the house and giving myself a French pedicure. When I looked at the clock on Saturday evening, it was already 7pm. The whole day was almost gone and I hadn’t done a thing on my to do list. I became more and more overwhelmed, but later decided to give myself permission to take the night off and relax. I listened to music, connected with God and did some reading.

So this is what I read from The Bond by Lynne McTaggart. I discovered that my to do list was so large; it was incomprehensible by my brain. Dr Rizzolatti a neurologist was studying movement and cognitive function at Italy’s University of Parma. He hooked monkeys up to devices that measured their brain waves. His team had the monkeys copy the human actions. To his surprise, the part of the brain that should light up when the monkey itself performs the action lit up prematurely when the researcher was performing the action, and the monkey was watching. “The very same neuron in the monkey’s brain that fired when it intended to grasp the object was also firing when the monkey observed the researcher grasping it”. That part of the brain is the ventral premotor cortex, the portion of the brain responsible for formulating and carrying out intentions.

When it comes to intentions, the brain’s copycats were pretty specific. If the monkey was able to comprehend what the researcher was doing, such as placing a banana in his mouth, the neurons would fire. But if the monkey observed an action that it didn’t recognize or could not relate to, the neurons would not fire.

To apply this principle to life, if what I visualize in my head is incomprehensible, then it would be more difficult to carry out the action. I realized some of the intentions on my to do list were large projects that were vague, with steps within the project that I did not have down. There were many of those on Saturday that just clogged my brain into a freeze.

I made things more familiar and comprehensible for myself the next day, Sunday. I decided to take my laptop to a café by the beach and write this blog article. This was one thing to do in one location and I promised myself I would not leave the café until this one thing was completed. And I can tell you I felt really good after writing this. One step at a time is what it all takes!

A tip for you is to break down tasks into small steps. For example, if you are planning your child’s summer camp, this task can seem overwhelming. But if you break down the list with separate items consisting of: web searching different camps, blocking off family vacation times, choosing available dates, calling your baby sitter for availability for pick up on the days you are unavailable, narrowing down to 2 choices, discussing with your child and giving them a choice between the 2 camps etc, all these steps can be done in one day, or a few days, and you are still checking off, one at a time, 6 separate things you need to get to the end goal of having summer camp arranged. And you will feel much happier doing it. This way of braking things down will be less stressful because this makes tasks more comprehensible by your brain. Whether you are copying someone else like the monkey, or formulating intensions in your head, the best way to get something done is to be sure you can relate and comprehend it, and that it gives you a sense of connection. Stay tuned, I’ll write about human connection next time.

I also want to mention that sometimes feeling unproductive can also be due to: physical fatigue, lack of nutrients for focus in the brain, anxiety, depression, unhealthy beliefs or in-congruency between your real wants and your projects. Schedule your appointment now to discuss this further with Dr. Chan.