How do you shut your brain up!

[gozpel]

Except to put a gun to your head...?

I'm focusing on a math task at work to do some machining. Boring, yeah but....

I'm not doing that on top, so I have to live with my live talk show all day long.
I have a very boring job and a voice pops up in my head: What about that game?
I answer: I don't care anymore, we lost!
Voice: Well, you lost but played very well.
Me: I said, I don't care. Now go away!
More rambling....

Struggle a little, but the voice goes away, then:
New voice (same voice actually, my voice): What color do we need on our back fence?
Me: I actually don't give a crap right now!
New Voice: Wouldn't Burgundy look pretty with your wife's garden?
Me: I DO NOT CARE RIGHT NOW, JUST GO AWAY!
Again, more rambling....

Struggle again, then the brain makes a statement!
Put a song in my head, LALALA, now that song will loop in my head for at least 5 days. Sometimes longer.

And today my brain sold me out, it put a song I like. But I don't remember any lyrics or the band.

My brain is a tuning station, if you turn one channel off another one starts.

How do you stop this, it's only getting harder the older I get.

If you don't have the problem I have, you're lucky and would see it as hilarious.
I think a thinking mind needs to be active at all time, but there need to be a switch somewhere.

I put it out here just for fun, and I wonder how you feel/deal with it.

 

[Gorbles]

Usually with music. Depending on my mental state, music sometimes doesn't work, and I have a more unproductive day. Meetings with colleagues can help, despite them being all-virtual these days.

Anything that distracts your brain from talking to itself (and you listening), generally. Something to break the loop and get you to refocus, for however briefly.

 

[Aiken_Drumn]

Make lists!

This allows you to remove a lot of the fluff into "not right now, not important" and MUST DO BEFORE FRIDAY!

 

[gozpel]

We are not allowed to have music in my place, it has to be quiet. But machinery is booming.

If you talk to someone, the leading hand comes up and ask if I have enough work.

And I have no lists to do, as I do the them through the week anyways, by memory.

 

[amadeus]

I go to work. Brain activity is strictly forbidden by management.

 

[Gorbles]

We are not allowed to have music in my place, it has to be quiet. But machinery is booming.

If you talk to someone, the leading hand comes up and ask if I have enough work.

And I have no lists to do, as I do the them through the week anyways, by memory.

The environment doesn't seem very conducive to helping you tune out your brain ticking over, I've got to say

I mean, my advice isn't really advice, it's just what I've been able to slap my brain with over the years to varying degrees of success. At other times I just live with it, brain scattering off in five different directions every other second. A good way to put off questions is to tell yourself you'll answer it later. No anger or frustration, just "good idea, let's file that one away for the end of the day". The problem is something will invariably fill it - that's the issue, more than what your brain is telling you.

 

[Kyriakos]

A free flow of connections is good, but if it becomes a massive river it's not so good (unless you also use that for something).

 

[Aiken_Drumn]

I find reading proves a good distraction from other worries you may get stuck on.

 

[Narz]

Meditation is supposed to be good for this sort of thing.

Problem is meditation is most annoying for people who need it the most.

You can get in a mental habit of prioritizing your values and releasing thoughts irrelevant to those.

It's not easy, we're distractable creatures made even more distractable by technology.

 

[Fippy]

I like reading Donald Duck comics, the stories are often good spirited and can be surprisingly interesting.
Maybe they are mostly forgotten by now (with all the anime stuff), in my youth they were everyones favorite.

Walking outside in the late evening when it's mostly quiet. Or early morning.
I think sometimes we look for deeper / modern solutions while the good old methods still work.

 

[Takhisis]

Play a couple maps of Doom, no saves, until you are inevitably killed.

 

[Narz]

I like reading Donald Duck comics

My daughter is obsessed w "the duckverse" rn.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Alcohol is tried and true