Making Life Easier, With NLP ChunkingPosted by Nick Niesen on October 26th, 2010 You know, in psychology there is a rule, especially within the NLP circles that I work in and the NLP literature that I read, it is quite a famous rule; 7 plus or minus 2 ? this is the notion that the conscious mind can only keep track of between 5 and 9 discrete pieces of information at one time. Your unconscious can literally keep track of billions and billions of things at the same time aparently (clever thing that it is!), while your conscious mind is more one step at a time and it has a fairly narrow focus. Whatever the truth of this, it is a useful way to experience your own thinking. Here are a couple of things that you can do to test the extent of your conscious mind: Without writing them down, blurt out now, straight away without thought; - As many brands of cars as you can. - As many film titles as you can. - As many pop groups as you can. When you bear the 7+-2 rule in mind, you can start to organise things so that you work with your conscious mind, playing to its strengths. For instance, if you have a to-do list. Firstly, scan through the list, looking for items that can be grouped together into categories. For example, here is a load of the stuff on my list for this week:
Write latest ezine article. Bank cheques. Finish writing chapter for new book Prepare for client therapy sessions. Finish project on public speaking. Finish marketing material for new courses. FInish listening to current educational Audio set. Read through solicitors material regarding other business project. Write up script for new audio title. Send out follow-up letters for last weeks clients. Prepare for photo shoot for new Bio. Write up blurb for my new Audio release. Write new web-page copy. Review new CD covers Meet PR people Do proposal for new book for Publishers. Read e-book New course blurb Meet with prospective business artner for new project. Clear inbox. Have a life. Have fun......
Write Adam Up: Products Bank cheques: Systems Finish writing chapter for new book: Products Prepare for client therapy sessions: People Finish project on public speaking: Personal Finish marketing material for new courses: Training Finish listening to current educational Audio set: Personal Read through solicitors material regarding other business project: Projects Write up script for new audio title: Products. Send out follow-up letters for last weeks clients: Systems. Prepare for photo shoot for new Bio: Marketing. Write up blurb for my new Audio release: Marketing. Write new web-page copy: Marketing. Review new CD covers: Systems Meet PR people: People. Do proposal for new book for Publishers: People. Read e-book: Personal. New course blurb: Marketing. Meet with prospective business artner for new project: People. Clear inbox: Personal. Have a life. Have fun: Personal. This is better! I have now gone from a list of 20 or so items (instant overwhelm) to a list of 6 categories which is well within even my 7+-2 limit. - Products - Systems - Training - Marketing - People - Personal
It is a simple thing that we do often anyway, NLP just heightened my awareness of it. I now do it in an NLP way.
Secondly, start to manage your to-do list by the high-level categories: You can use this in all sorts of areas to make things more manageable, for example: - To-do lists. - Goals you are working toward. - The filing system on your computer. - Your filing cabinet. - Any project you?re doing. One of the things this allows you to do is notice very quickly if there?s a specific area where you have not been taking much action lately ? very useful for helping focus on what needs attention. Like it? Share it!More by this author |