Last week after several hours of very focused writing in my home office I discovered that I simply couldn’t think any more. I was experiencing Brain Boggle – the inability to think due to brain fatigue. I was frustrated – I couldn’t think, but I still had some energy and the workday was not over yet.

If you have ever experienced this, here are a few semi-mindless and yet productive things you can do with minimum brain-power.

What to do?

• Empty your email inbox – this is especially useful if you, like me, use your email inbox as a miscellaneous computer file.
• Enter contact info into your database. If you have a stack of business cards from your last networking event, now is the time to get them into your computer database with a brief note where you met this person and other important details.
• Clear off your desk.
• Open a file folder on your computer and find outdated documents or unnecessary duplicates (earlier drafts) and delete them.
• Organize your computer bookmarks. If you use a tool like Delicious, you can tag or organize the pages you saved, or you can open a tag and de-clutter the outdated pages there.

Do one of these until you run out of energy, get too bored, or your workday is done.

What do you do when you experience Brain Boggle? Share your comments, experiences and ideas with us.

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photo credit: Tim Morgan