Your head seems so full. And it never stops; all these thoughts are constantly swirling around in your head. Every question repeats itself. Parts of conversations don’t leave your mind. Literature you can’t release out of your head. Do you recognise it?
Many PhD students suffer from it: a ‘scrambled brain’. And the annoying thing is, you can’t think well with such a brain. You won’t be open to the information you read, see or hear. So you won’t progress. You really need to empty your head to take new steps, substantive steps! You will probably manage to do some routine tasks but it is very hard to think in a accurate way.
What are good ways to clear your head? I have some examples for you.
· Go for a walk.
· Empty your desk, make sure you are not distracted.
· Start free writing, set a timer for 15 minutes and write down everything that comes up in your mind, just keep on writing.
· Be physically active, that will for sure help to empty your head.
· Make sure you eat well; a full stomach helps to keep worrying thoughts at bay.
· Make sure you do enough fun things, they will put your train of thoughts on a different track.
· Do something that requires a lot of concentration: do some mental arithmetic, what is the answer to 723 x 241?
· Meditate.
· Talk to a colleague about what bothers you.
· Play some music and really listen to it, after 5 minutes you should have cleared your mind.
· Make a list of your task to prevent them from constantly popping up in your mind.
· Put things in perspective, make a timeline of your life, start with your birth, where are you now, where are you heading to? How important are all these thoughts in your head then?
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