When was the last time you did a good sweep?  No, not of your house or apartment floors, but of your mind!  The Mind Sweep is a fundamental productivity technique designed to get ideas out of your head and into your system.  If you want to achieve a state of “Mind Like Water” where the only thing on your mind is the present moment, keeping your mental space clean is a must.  The Mind Sweep is a valuable tool to accomplish this goal.

The rules are simple.  Start by grabbing a stack of sticky notes or small note paper pads along with a good pen or pencil.  As items come to mind, write them down on paper, following the rule of one thought per page.  Put every thought down in writing no matter how big or small it seems.  Work on it for enough time to clear your mind, whether that is ten minutes or an hour.  Finally, put all those notes into your inbox to process and organize.

David Allen often says that the only way you can feel good about what you are not doing is to know what you are not doing.  So shake off those mental cobwebs and do a good mind sweep this week.  It is worth the effort.