Finding Your Words with a Tiny Notebook
Okay, so here's what happened. I'm sitting there the other day, supposed to write this whole thing about "Activate" (whatever that means, right?), and I pick up my phone to start typing and... nothing. Brain completely empty. Like someone vacuumed out all the thoughts and left me with that weird carpet smell.
You know that feeling? When you open a blank document and your mind just goes "NOPE!" and runs away like a cat who just saw a cucumber? That's me. Every. Single. Time.
So I'm having this mini meltdown - not the ugly crying kind, more like the "I'm a fraud who can't even write a simple post" kind - when I remember this trick I learned from... honestly, I can't remember where. Probably read it on the back of a cereal box or something.
Here's what I did: I grabbed this tiny notebook. And when I say tiny, I mean TINY. Like, it literally fits in that useless little pocket in your jeans. You know, the one that's supposedly for coins but who carries coins anymore?
Anyway, this notebook becomes my brain's trash can. But like, in a good way! No fancy Moleskine situation here - we're talking dollar store special. The kind where the paper's so thin you can practically see through it.
So whenever I get that "oh god, I've forgotten how to think" feeling, I grab this notebook and just... dump. Everything. It's like when you can't sleep because your brain won't shut up about that embarrassing thing you did in 2007, except now you're writing it all down.
The Ten Minute Trick
Here's the trick though - and this is where it gets good - I set a timer for TEN MINUTES. Not fifteen, not five. Ten. There's something magical about ten minutes. It's long enough that your brain stops fighting you, but short enough that you can't talk yourself out of it.
"But I don't have anything to write!" my brain screams.
"Too bad, we're doing this for ten minutes," I tell it back.
And then - I kid you not - after about three minutes of writing absolute garbage like "I don't know what to write" and "this is stupid" and "did I remember to water the plants?"... actual thoughts start appearing!
It's like my brain goes, "Oh, we're doing this? Fine. Here's that project you're avoiding. Here's that email you need to send. Here's why you're actually stressed about next week."
The panic doesn't disappear completely (let's be real, I'm not a meditation guru), but it shrinks. Goes from a giant stress monster to more of a stress hamster. Still there, but way more manageable.
A Lesson from Chaos
Last week, I couldn't find my notebook for like three days and my brain turned into absolute chaos. Like someone dumped out a jigsaw puzzle and mixed in pieces from five other puzzles. Found it under the couch cushions, naturally. Right next to seventeen hair ties and what I'm pretty sure was a petrified Cheerio.
Final Thoughts
So here's my advice, friend to friend: Get yourself a notebook. The cheaper and smaller, the better. Don't make it precious. Make it messy. Make it real.
Next time you're staring at that blank screen feeling like your brain cells have gone on strike, grab that notebook. Set a timer. Ten minutes. Just write whatever comes out - grocery lists, random worries, song lyrics stuck in your head, whatever.
Because here's the thing - momentum is sneaky. It starts with the tiniest push. One word becomes a sentence. A sentence becomes a paragraph. And before you know it, you're actually doing the thing instead of just thinking about doing the thing.
Ten minutes. That's it. That's the whole secret.
Way better than sitting there pretending you have telepathic powers to make words appear on the screen, right? (Spoiler: I've tried. Doesn't work. Just gives you a headache.)
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go hide this notebook somewhere I'll actually remember. Maybe not under the couch this time...
Comments
Post a Comment