If you’ve been scolded for forgetting something important or giving a boss inane information, it’s proof that you need to clear your thinking. Clearing your thinking can help you complete tasks and use your time effectively. Let’s learn how to organize your ideas to change how you work and how you live.
Why I need to erase it from my thinking
When you see an advertisement for healthy food on your way to work, you think to yourself: “I need to lose a few pounds. When you arrive at the office, you quickly review the tasks that your boss has assigned to you and ask, “When can I get these done?” Even though I don’t have trouble remembering things, I occasionally forget crucial plans, causing my mind to get overwhelmed and my head to spin.
It is estimated that a human being has 50,000 to 60,000 thoughts daily. However, our minds are not supercomputers with limitless abilities. When too many thoughts gather, thinking speed decreases, and errors can happen. Therefore, you need to clean your mind just as you clean your room to quickly find the things you need. Organizing and decluttering makes work easier and more efficient. It will also help you figure out what you really want. This creates a new goal. When you clean your thinking, you will change not only your daily routine, but your life.
What is the difference between the assistant manager Kim and the assistant manager Lee?
Let’s take a look at the everyday life of an office worker. Kim, the assistant manager who is part of the planning team, had some concerns. I don’t know where to start training new employees, and there are only two reports due this week. In the past, I was not good at writing reports because of overlapping tasks, so I was very stressed. However, even though Assistant Manager Lee from the next team was in the same situation, his expression was calm, and the newcomer seemed to be busy following along.
Where does the difference between the assistant Manager Kim and the assistant Manager Lee come from? It’s just organizing your thoughts. My thoughts become a map for every action I have to take. A person with a map of thoughts handles any task efficiently. You are confident because you know exactly what to do. People who stand out and are good at their jobs often have hidden skills in organizing their thoughts. People who are excellent at organizing their thoughts in this way have two characteristics.
First, use tools
If your thoughts are not in writing, they are just delusions. They use their notebooks or apps to organize what they did yesterday and how their work is progressing. Then, on the basis of your progress, write down what you have to do today. Thoughts are invisible. It’s hard to remember what I was thinking even after 5 minutes if I don’t write it down somewhere. Just writing down what I have to do gives my brain space to think about the next thought. The German saying, “A dull pencil is better than a brilliant mind,” also emphasizes the importance of recording.
KJ Technique to Promote Convergent Thinking
The KJ Technique is a method developed by Japanese cultural anthropologist Jiro Kawagita for organizing academic research. The method of writing down ideas on a ‘Post-it’ or notepad, pasting them on a large piece of paper, and dividing them into several groups according to topic to find new solutions all falls under the KJ technique. Understanding this way of thinking can be very helpful when using digital tools or creating new knowledge. There are four stages to the KJ technique.
- Frequently write down the information you receive or the thoughts that come to mind about a topic on a card.
- Once the collected cards are together, group the cards according to the classification criteria you think of. A group can be made up of small groups. It is also a good idea to create large groups by connecting small groups.
- Groups are ordered by relevance. Causes and effects are listed in chronological order, and if there are groups with the same meaning, they are listed in parallel.
- From the collected cards, select the card that was the starting point for your thoughts, and then combine the contents of all the cards into one article.
Second, people who are good at organizing their thoughts are good at categorizing them.
Writing a to-do list is the first step in organizing your thoughts, not the last. To organize your thoughts systematically, you need a “framework. Let’s say I’m writing a report on myself. If you write down everything that comes to mind without any classification criteria, you will get stuck after writing down 3 or 4 things. Even when you look at everything you’ve written down, it doesn’t feel organized because the strengths and weaknesses are mixed. This time, let’s reclassify the organized content according to “SWOT analysis,” a framework used in marketing. You will find that it looks more organized than before and is easier to see at a glance.
Principles to follow to organize your thoughts well
1. Never just think about it, write it down.
You may have heard that successful people carry a small note in their wallet with their goals written on it. Sometimes a little note can be more powerful than the will in my heart. The reason it always ends with three days of resolution is because it was not written down clearly.
2. Let’s put aside for a moment the idea that this is realistically impossible.
Imagine yourself in a game. I have all the abilities I want, and I have everything I need. Let’s think about what I really want. If you use the words ‘realistic’ or ‘impossible’, nothing will change from now on. Don’t judge your abilities, other people’s opinions, or possibilities. Just because you write down a goal doesn’t mean you have to achieve it. Don’t be afraid to write things down because you’re afraid of a future that hasn’t happened yet.
3. Think big
What would I want to do with my life if success was guaranteed? There are many things you will have to give up in order to achieve your big dreams. If there are things you’ve given up because you thought they were impossible, don’t feel pressured to write them down. What is the dream that makes your heart race just thinking about it? If your goals and dreams are small, you can only achieve results that are commensurate with them. The German writer Goethe said: “Do not dream small dreams. “Such dreams have no power to move people’s hearts.
4. Think positively
When setting goals, we often focus on negative situations to solve problems. It is better to focus more on positive situations. If a man weighing 90 kilos wants to lose 80 kilos, it is better to say “I will lose 80 kilos by when!” rather than “I will lose 10 kilos! If you have a problem in your work life, writing ‘I will have a happy work life’ rather than ‘I will solve the problems in my work life’ will help you maintain positivity.
5. Let’s create my own goals, not other people’s goals.
When I write down my goals, I often end up writing down what I have to do rather than what I really want to do. Let’s put aside for a moment the standards set by family, friends, colleagues, or social norms. The most important thing is to create your own goals based on the values you really want, as confirmed above.
How to organize your thoughts from Ohtani, the best player in Major League Baseball
Shohei Ohtani, known as Japan’s monster pitcher, is a pitcher who throws a ball at 160 km/h, but he is also an excellent hitter and hits many home runs, making him literally the perfect player. What is Shohei Otani’s secret? It was about making a very specific plan using a tool called a “mandarat” to get one step closer to the goal you need to achieve. The Mandarat was created by Japanese designer Hiroaki Imaizumi. It consists of 81 columns. You place the goal you want to achieve in the center and write the information you need to achieve your goal in the eight surrounding columns. Then move the eight items back to the center of the remaining eight columns. Next, fill in the spaces necessary to form the central object. This type of mandala allows you to see the detailed methods for achieving your goal organized on one page, and helps you create new ideas by using the psychology of wanting to fill in the gaps in the frame. Also, because it spreads out from the center, logical thinking becomes possible.
Examples of using mandarat
Hyundai Glovis operates the “Customer Satisfaction Improvement Clinic Zoom-in” where each team diagnoses and solves customer satisfaction problems. This is a customized consulting program to actively resolve the concerns of Hyundai Glovis employees dealing with customers, focusing on the characteristics of each department, each team, and each case. We hope that many of you will participate, as the program will give you the opportunity to look inside your own mind that you didn’t even know you had, so that you can organize complex thoughts and understand your team members.
*The above content is excerpted from < How to clear my mind> (written by Kim Kyeong-rok/Garden of Books)
by Editorial Department
2023.11.07