I was recently speaking with a friend who is a speech therapist about her work with kids who have difficulty with processing information.

It made realise how many people experience overwhelm and get stuck simply because they don’t have a way of decluttering their thoughts (as you would a house) to help them get clarity and focus.

The children she works with are bright kids but don’t work to their potential because they lack structure for organising information and knowledge and then get overwhelmed and fall behind in their learning.

So, I was curious and asked more about how she helped kids because I knew that whatever she was teaching them would be simple enough to learn and apply to us all.

What she teaches kids happens to be a three step process which helps them apply newly learned information into meaningful projects and assignments.

I will share her process below but first let’s look at why is this so important- even to us as adults:

Having a process or framework to organise information can help us: 

• Reduce overwhelm and frustration;
• Gain clarity and insight;
• Form new ideas;
• Conceptualise prior knowledge,
• See patterns and join the dots;
• Deepen our knowledge;
• Get inspired and take meaningful action!

I think we can all relate to times when we’ve felt overwhelmed, confused and stuck with what to do next, be it in work, relationships, or health, and struggled to achieve goals.

I certainly have and looking back I can see it was because I didn’t have the right framework or system to help me organise what I knew and what I did really well into meaningful and purposeful work.

But thankfully I acted on my urge to be more and do more.  For three years I studied the art of organising and structuring my knowledge and expertise with those who knew more about this and were successful at it.

Without the right guidance and structure I would not be teaching, facilitating and mentoring the way I do. It’s why and how I created The Empowered Woman Training.

It’s also why I know what I’m about.

I often heard one of my mentors Lisa Sasevich saying:

Structure gives you freedom

It’s so true! I’m thankful those words stuck in my mind. It’s what helped me stay focused on my goals and keep making a difference by being who I am.

With the right framework we can create meaningful results and outcomes by being true to ourselves and our mission.

So what is an effective way to clear mental clutter, organise and integrate information and knowledge?

Here are three simple steps to get started – and it’s the one my friend shared with me which she uses in her work with kids:

1. What is the problem, challenge or task at hand that is taking up a lot of your energy?

For example it could be deciding on which career path to take because you are unhappy with your current role. Use mind mapping, flow charts or bullet points to help you get your thoughts out of your head.  I like mind mapping because I’m very visual when it comes to planning. Be creative and do it to reflect how you learn. To get really creative by engaging your right brain use coloured textas, standwhile writing and even play music in the background.

2. So what? What are the consequences? 

For example, what would be the consequences of staying and being unhappy in your current role. What will happen continue to worsen?  Brain storm. If  you were using mind mapping to answer question one, continue by brainstorming on the same mind map/flow chart/bullet points.

3. Decide what now? What are the solutions? 

Brain storm possible solutions or what needs doing if you are focusing on a task.

Once done, prioritise simple steps to help you get started on moving forward on your specific task or challenge.

I recommend doing this process once a month to help you stay focused and accountable to your goals and what is really important to you.

Maybe you already have another way of planning and organising information that already works for you. Feel free to share it with with me. I’d love to hear from you.

Here’s to more clarity and focus in your life,

Suzi Petrozzi.

P.S. If you would like help getting a meaningful and purposeful framework for moving forward then you can either reach out to me to find out more about my six month mentoring program The Empowered Woman Accelerator or enrol now at $997 only for our May 2019 The Empowered Woman Live Retreat at www.theempoweredwomanlive.com.

P.P.S. Prices for retreats will go up next year so this is a good opportunity to  to save $1000 and commit to living a more empowered life.