Energy & Empty head (2 comments/questions)

[sjaak]

Hi from Belgium,

1) Mr Allen mentions that he has emptied his head. And there is no way of knowing it is empty until you know it is empty (you don't know if you are 20%, 70% or 99% empty - only when 100% empty do you know).
Have people on this forum completed this feat and can someone give some more insights on the the benefits of having 100% emptied yoru head.

2) A question that is related to this is that not emptying your head costs energy. Is there an objective quantifiable way to measure how much energy you have?

Jacques.

[Borisoff]

1. I think there're no rules on how to calculate the emptiness of the head :)

2. You should feel when you want to do new tasks and when you just want to sleep :)

E.

[jarvek7]

this is a good Q. How do you know when it truly is "empty"?

[sjaak]

this is a good Q. How do you know when it truly is "empty"?
I agree. Mr Allen mentions that there is an incredible difference between almost empty and empty. And that you do not know the difference until you are "empty". I would like hear if others have accomplsihed "emptyness". So far the only reference I have heard of is Mr Allen's

[kewms]

Even Buddhist monks who meditate for hours every day don't claim to achieve a truly empty mind. There are always thoughts. The question is what happens next? Do you let attachment to the stray thoughts distract you from what you're doing, or do you write them down and let them go?

Katherine

[benengel]

For me the trick is just doing it and not getting too hung up on achieving a result. I trust the process and what I get is just what I get - neither right or wrong.

In terms of benefit, last night was a good example for me. I couldn't get to sleep but didn't necessarily feel like I had much in my head that needed to be dealt with. I got a piece of paper out anyway and ended up writing for about 45 minutes which was a mix of journaling and a dump of things on my mind. After that I felt like a weight had been lifted and I slept better than I had in the last few nights.

Ben

[TesTeq]

I think the "empty your head" phrase should be replaced by "backup your head". I do not think David Allen wants us to clear our brains. He says that we should store everything that is in our head in the external trusted system. If our memory fails we would not lose any information because we have backup. If it is a trusted 100% backup we are in the peaceful state of stress-free existence with no open loops where every important thought is recorded and can be retrieved easily.

[darlakbrown]

I would say it just signifies that we clear out our head of mundane details to leave room for more creative thinking. We're not walking around like zombies just waiting for our Treo to tell us the next thing to do. We're creating, manifesting, prioritizing... using our minds in a better way.

"Our minds are for having ideas, not holding them."

[mondo]

To me an empyu head implies that theres no nagging thoughts popping up and distracting you. If there are, you need to do something with them, so that your mind stops reminding you of them at random times (mostly inopportune). Thats where the "trusted external system" comes into play.

That doesn't mean that your mind isn't active with lots of stuff (random thoughts, problems, etc). It just means that its doing it on new stuff or creative stuff, rather than "having the same thought twice".

[Foxman]

an empty head in GTD terms has nothing to do with meditation! It simply means get all your to-do's, goals, dreams, responibilities, etc on paper so they stop being on a continuous loop robbing you of mental energy.

[sjaak]

I am still no further...

My original question was NOT what does emptying your head mean and if it is the right way to describe it.

I am still wondering if people on this forum have been able to "empty their head" for 100% (like Mr Allen mentions in the GTD Fast CDs) and if so have you noticed some extraordinary differences (compared to your head being 99% empty - again using Mr Allen's words)...

[TesTeq]

I am still wondering if people on this forum have been able to "empty their head" for 100% (like Mr Allen mentions in the GTD Fast CDs) and if so have you noticed some extraordinary differences (compared to your head being 99% empty - again using Mr Allen's words)...
Yes, yes. Mind like water.