So I was going to research something online, noticed I had a Facebook notification, clicked on it, responded to it… then, 8 minutes later, I forgot what I was doing. It took me a couple minutes of retracing my steps to recover it. I call it BBS… Busy Brain Syndrome.
That’s never happened to you, right? 😉
The “can’t remember what I was going to do… or say”, dilemma can happen over the next hour and sometimes minutes. Fortunately, I now use a time tracker to track my time, and often refer to it to quickly recall the last task, or my entire day, such as when I’m posting the day’s review in my journal.
However, I’m not concerned. Miffed sometimes, yes. Concerned, no. I know that my forgetfulness is not because of heredity or any deleterious aging. It shows up in people of all ages, including youth.
The forgetfulness of this era is often just Busy Brain Syndrome (BBS).
~LeAura Alderson, iCreateDaily.com
Is Brain Syndrome Bad?
Though I’ve been using this busy brain syndrome (BBS) phrase for a few years, I think this is the first time I’ve written about it. In researching that term to see if others were using it, it seems that indeed they are.1)http://www.sylviamarina.com/_blog/Articles/post/Busy_Brain_Syndrome/2)https://www.creatingyourplan.com/busy-brain-syndrome/
While there are many causes for concern related to forgetfulness, if your forgetfulness is the result of busy brain syndrome, BBS, then it’s not so much to worry about. In fact, an active brain—like active muscles—can keep you healthier and more mentally resilient as you age.3)https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/199503/the-busy-brain
However, there are things you can do to improve your mental efficiency, if this presents a problem.
“Information overload is a symptom of our desire to not focus on what’s important. It is a choice.”
~Brian Solis
Causes of Busy Brain Syndrome
BBS is definitely not convenient, and can be annoying and even embarrassing, such as when it happens to me on the iCreateDaily podcast. However, the good news is that it’s most often not due to some deleterious aging effect. The reasons and causes will vary by each individual scenario.
If you’re suffering forgetfulness and have concerns, then you should definitely look into it to allay your concerns. If you’re forgetful, but don’t have any history of Alzheimer’s or other dementia in your family, perhaps you just have BBS.
BBS is most often due to these non-disease related causes:
- ADD/ADHD
- Creators
- Ideators
- Lack of focus
- Distractions
- Multitasking
- Worry
If you’re an artist entrepreneur building a business, then you’re very familiar with the multitude of tasks, opportunities and avenues available for growing your brand and your business, especially in the online world. If you struggle each day to laser in on what you most need to be doing, then you’re not alone.
A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.
― Herbert A. Simon
50 Years Ago
What kinds of things demanded our attention (or that of our elders), 50 years ago? There were no online distractions, very few TV programs, no cell phones or cable with hundreds of channels. Social media 50 years ago was church, the movies, cookouts at friend’s homes, community pool parties and sitting on the front porch.
Today, to research sources to cite for this article, I go to one article that has to be clicked 50 times to get through each page of brief actual content I’m looking for. However, the entire lower 2/3 of the page is clickbait content that makes you want to click to “know the scoop”. Each ONE page has 20 more possibilities to click on, and each one of those leads to another 20 or so.
And that doesn’t even touch the email inbox and social notifications that pop up at each site you visit. If you go to one of your social sites today, there can be numerous notifications and another 50 or so friends posts and ads in your timeline. More distractions added to your own busy creator’s brain.
“There are many things of which a wise man might wish to be ignorant”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Information Era – Age of Information Pollution
Distractions are not your fault… but they are your responsibility.
Distractions are are part of the age that we live in. Just like pollution went with the territory of the early years of the industrial age, so too does attention pollution go with the territory of the information age of today.
The information age is the age of distractions. Be possessive of your attention… or someone else will.
~LeAura Alderson
You Cannot do it all , so do What Matters Most
This article was inspired by a distracted moment; a brief snippet of conversation with someone in our iCreateDaily community. I’ve elaborated on this in another article where something similar happened that ended up very well. This time I was distracted by an interaction, that led to a conversation that led to this article. Now what was I doing a minute ago..? 🤔 😉
Put Your Busy Brain to Work for You, not Against You
A busy brain is also the sign of a flourishing mind. It’s like the garden in summer. All is well, but you just need to tend the weeds and pests, and guard your precious bounty.
Five Quick Tips for BBS
- Set your goals and stick to them
- Keep an ideas notebook and write all ideas as they come so you can get them out of your mind to attend to later
- Set specific times for your social platforms and stick to them
- Track your time to be accountable
- Avoid those things which do not serve your goals
The ultimate remedy for Busy Brain Syndrome in this era of information pollution:
Avoid those things which do not serve your goals.
~LeAura Alderson
As a creator, your not likely to get less busy or have fewer ideas, because the more you create, the more you live in the flow of the realm of ideas. This era of information pollution is not likely to clear up anytime soon. So it’s up to us to clean up our inner environment through discernment.
The more ideas you do, the more ideas will come to you.
~LeAura Alderson
The good news?
Remember, an active mind is an agile mind. Like an active body that stays strong and limber through exercise and stretching, so too does your brain through creativity, activity and movement. Having lots of ideas is great. Putting them to use, one at a time through daily creating, even better.
An active mind is an agile mind.
~LeAura Alderson, iCreateDaily.com
Start. Sustain. Succeed. iCreateDaily!
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References