The Day I Robbed a Bank

Did I tell you about the day I robbed a bank?

It was a typical busy workday and I had a dozen ideas and tasks swirling in my brain. I was rushing around running some errands. In between stopping by the post office and the office supply store, I deposited a few checks at my bank’s drive through. After driving a few miles away, deep in thought about all I still had to do that day, I glanced down at the passenger seat and noticed an odd object. It was a plastic cylinder. Oh, no! It was the plastic cylinder the bank uses to get checks from the car through the pneumatic tube to the tellers. I just robbed a bank! I did a quick u-turn and promptly placed the cylinder back where it belonged before anyone knew it was gone.

That got me thinking. How much have I been missing because of the brain clutter that gets in the way? What business opportunities have passed me by because I didn’t take the time to follow up with a networking contact or pick up on the signs of a colleague in need of my services for her clients?

Elaine St. James, the author of Simplify Your Work Life, writes, "Maintaining a complicated life is a great way to avoid changing it."

Think about what clutters your brain–like unnecessary commitments, jam-packed schedules, regrets, resentments and that incessant "to do" list. What tasks can you eliminate or delegate to someone else or to technology? Clear out your mind so you can focus on what matters. Anything less would be a crime.