Does your mind keep going off on its own, thinking about things that have nothing to do with the task at hand? Do you have trouble coming up with solutions to difficult problems? Do you feel stressed out and overwhelmed? If you follow the steps outlined below, you can overcome these problems.

Step One – Early Morning Quiet

Every morning, after you are up and have gotten ready, but before you start working, take a few minutes to yourself. Let whatever comes to mind drift in and back out until you have internal quiet**. Let yourself be quiet for a few moments, then repeat (it can be out loud, or in your mind, as long as you think out the whole thing) what you want to accomplish both that day, and any overarching goals you are working on. Visualize achieving these goals as well as you are able, then take another minute or two of quiet, and you’ll be ready to be on your way, sharp and focused for your work day.

** A note on this: The time it takes to achieve internal quiet varies with the amount of time between attempts to reach it… in other words, the more often you seek internal quiet, the easier it is to achieve each individual time.

Step Two – Mid-Day Review

At lunch time, take just a moment to look back over the morning and see what you’ve accomplished. This can help you feel like you’ve gotten something done, as well as helping you to focus your energy on what’s most important in the rest of the day. Take this opportunity to again repeat whatever goals you are pursuing… repetition helps to set them more firmly in your mind.

Step Three – Evening Quiet And Review

In the evening, when you’re done for the day, take a few moments again to review what you did that day, what got accomplished and what did not. Form a general idea of what you want to accomplish the next day. Repeat, again, the goals that you want to accomplish. Take a few moments to seek internal quiet again, letting the days events go. This should clear work from your mind so that you can focus on your home life, connecting easily with friends and family.

Step Four – Just Before Bed

After you do your preparations for bed, brushing your teeth and such, you’re ready for the last step of this process. Think back over the events of the entire day, what you liked, what you didn’t, what you got accomplished and how you felt… just a general review so that you can learn from what happened. When you’re done, repeat one last time your goals, then take a few deep breaths and relax your body, while once again finding your internal quiet. This shouldn’t take long, as you’ve already done it three times this day. Now you should be able to easily drift off to sleep, and you should sleep well, awakening the next day refreshed.

Conclusion

If you do all of these things, adding them to your daily routine, you will find that your mind is much clearer. You will be able to respond to new situations and problems more easily. You will learn new skills faster, achieve your goals better, and keep your mind more focused. Stress will fade out, and you will very seldom feel overwhelmed.

When you first start, this may add 45 minutes to an hour to your day, but the time it takes will quickly drop. Most people, once they’re started, take less than 30 minutes. Really accomplished practitioners can do it in 10. Any time you skip a day or more, it make take extra time to get back into your groove, driving up the time it takes (not to mention the fact that you’ll feel your clarity fade away), but you can simply start doing it again and the time it takes will go back down.

All those benefits for a grand total of approximately 30 minutes per day… not a bad bargain!