Getting ideas out of your head and into a system that you trust helps prevent them from distracting you and frees up space in your brain for focused work. A good backup memory system can reduce stress, distractions, anxiety and overwhelm.

A backup memory system can be a simple to-do list or a comprehensive system for managing all aspects of your life. The first step is to capture and collect thoughts that require future action in a space outside of your head. The collection point, or bucket, could be a paper list, a note in your phone, a physical inbox or a ‘to action’ folder in your email account.

The next step is to review your buckets regularly. If your brain doesn’t trust that your backup memory system will remind you of a task when needed, it will remind you by popping that thought into your head at random times, distracting you from what you were doing and causing unnecessary stress.

Buckets can be as detailed or as simple as you like, but these tips can help:

• Have the bucket available when you need it, for example: if one of your buckets is a grocery list, it needs to be with you when you are shopping.
• Have at least one general bucket with you at all times to collect thoughts whenever they pop into your head. You can transfer the thought to a more appropriate bucket later on.
• Create buckets for different aspects of your life, for example:
  • goals that you want to achieve,
  • chores you need to do, and
  • tasks you need to do at work.
• Identify actions you need to take, not the problems you need to resolve.
• The more ideas you can get out of your head and into a bucket, the better.
• When reviewing your buckets, create plans to tackle any complicated or challenging items.
• Assess your thoughts and external demands regularly and put any that need future action into a bucket.
• Review your buckets regularly to check if anything needs to be prioritized or removed.
• Create a bucket for items you want to action someday but can’t get to right now.
• Create a bucket for any non-actionable reference material.