Release The "Small Things" To Maximize Your Brain Power
How small distractions drain your mental energy and what you can do to reclaim your focus.
The Small Things That Quietly Steal Your Focus
Have you ever needed to focus on an urgent project, proposal, budget, or management task, but something small diverted your attention?
Let me explain what happens with a quick example.
Imagine you accidentally eat something and, despite your best efforts, a little dot of food gets on your clothing. If you're out in public, you reach for a napkin and some water to try to get the stain out. If you're über-prepared, you have a stain-remover pen on hand.
Let's focus on the scenario where you don't.
What happens when something doesn't go as planned? Your brain starts circling back to the same thought: the stain. No matter how hard you try to look past it, use the good old "mindset matters" tips, or attempt to reframe the situation, the thought doesn't budge. In that moment, both your conscious and subconscious mind are involuntarily focused on that small stain.
Even if 15 to 60 thoughts occur, your brain is spending energy processing those mental scripts in nanoseconds.
This is what happens throughout the day whenever something unplanned occurs.
Every one of these small five- or ten-minute events draws on your brain's energy and can impact executive functioning.
Take 15 minutes today and write down the small things that happened—things that seemed minuscule. How did your attention divert in each moment?
Let's talk business. You can be the most task-focused person and still have these mental scripts affecting your efficiency, time management, emotional regulation, and cognitive flexibility.
What Needs to Happen to Stay on Track?
- Acknowledge the event, both in your brain and your body. In this scenario, acknowledge the stain.
- Identify the script. For example: "Oh no, what if people see it?" Let that script play out and complete.
- Brain-dump it. Write it down to help release it.
- Breathe. Take one deep breath out, followed by one deep breath in.
- Ask: What's the next step? This helps regulate the brain and body and close the loop. Otherwise, that stain can keep replaying its script, like a record stuck on repeat, until you acknowledge it, lift the needle, and press stop.
How Does This Impact Your Business?
- It frees up mental space, both consciously and unconsciously, before, during, and after events.
- Acknowledging the thoughts tied to a distraction, contrary to popular belief, can help your brain release them more quickly and restore executive function so you can return to the task at hand.
Notice how many "little things" pile up and quietly cost you efficiency, time, and creativity.
A Few Ways to Reclaim Brain Power
- Walk for a few minutes, especially after an event or when you feel nervous.
- Tap the left and right sides of the top of a table, alternating sides, to help release the stress of what just happened.
- Take a few deep breaths out.
When you attend to what happened and acknowledge it, you create an opportunity to restore the mental capacity you need for focus, creativity, and clear decision-making.
