David had an e-commerce business that had his work life pretty dialed in, but his personal life felt like complete chaos.

The problem was, even the simplest things at home took him forever.

Every time David had a vacation coming up, packing would turn into an exhausting all-day event.
He'd open his suitcase and start throwing things in, then stop to figure out what the weather would actually be like, then pull everything out to start over, only to realize he needed some dressy clothes, which completely changed his mind about what shoes to bring.

By the time he was done, David felt like he'd run a marathon instead of just packing for a 4-day trip.

The same thing happened when he tried to clean his apartment - he'd start organizing his closet, then stop to decide if he should donate clothes first.
In the process, he’d get distracted figuring out the best way to fold shirts, then restart with a different system entirely.

David told me he was spending entire weekends on basic life stuff and feeling mentally wiped out from tasks that shouldn't be that hard.

By improving one thinking skill, his brain shifted in how it approached tasks.
David now breezes through everything from meal planning to home projects without that mental exhaustion. He's has time on the weekends to relax AND tackle his to-do list.


While you are doing any task, you without even realizing it, are using your 28 thinking skills.
When the thinking skills you need to use are strong, doing the task happens easily.
If the thinking skill you need to use is weak, doing the task is a challenge.
The struggle that David had came from a weak thinking skill of summing up.


Summing Up

Summing up is about counting up the details needed to do a task.

David's brain was getting lost in endless micro-decisions because he couldn't step back and see how many things were actually involved.

Think about his packing situation.
His brain was processing: weather, activities, dressy vs casual, shoes, toiletries, electronics, documents, length of trip, luggage size... but he never stepped back to say "Okay, this is a 4-day business trip to Chicago in March. That just 4 days of meetings, 2 days of traveling and potentially 3 nights of chilling.”

Once you sum up the situation, everything else becomes way clearer.



I did 3 exercises with David to help his brain get better at summing up. All them you can do at home by yourself:


1) Super simple. Before you start a task, list out loud the elements of the task.
Before clearing his apartment, David would take a moment to observe and list out the task ahead: "I see books everywhere, dirty dishes, clothes on the floor, and papers on my desk. Four main areas. And the goal is having a clean, organized space to relax."

Your brain relaxes when it knows exactly what it's dealing with.

And no, this isn’t about lists. This is about training your brain to automatically see the details in the picture without losing sight of the big picture, so that you can work more efficiently.


If your brain gets overwhelmed because it feels like so many steps, number 2 is for you.



2) After you count the elements, ask yourself: "If I had to explain the main point of this task in one sentence, what would it be?"

For David's apartment cleaning: "I want a space where I can relax without stuff everywhere."
That's it.
Everything else is just details supporting that core idea.

When you do both one and two, then your brain can see the details and the bigger picture.


3) This one helps you for the future. After you finish any task, write down all the details that were actually involved.

David started doing this and realized packing for a business trip consistently involved about 12 specific things. Now his brain knows what to expect and doesn't get overwhelmed because it's prepared for those 12 elements.

As your brain gets better at summing up, you stop getting lost in details and start seeing clear solutions.
Tasks that used to drain your energy become manageable because you know exactly what you're dealing with.




Cheers to Peak Brain Performance!
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