I've heard that your brain can only focus on one thing at a time. I've also heard that your brain can actually focus on four things at a time. Whether it be four things or one thing, unfortunately, there are always always more than five things happening at every point in time. In fact, there are probably more than 50 things happening at every point in time. However good you may think you are at multitasking, your brain has a smaller functioning capacity than you think.
So what's my solution? Write stuff down.
Write stuff down!
Something that I have started doing while I am doing homework or in dance class, or honestly anywhere, is keeping a pencil and blank piece of paper in the room with me. And every time I have a random thought, I just write it down. Just write it down! Because if that random thought about how I need to pick up cream cheese from the grocery store on Tuesday stays floating in my head, it's taking up brain space. That important but not relevant thought is stealing my brain's attention, and the only way to get that space back is to physically remove the thought from my brain. Besides, chances are, if I don't write it down I'll forget about it in an hour anyway. And then my cream cheese never gets picked up from the store and my bagels are dry and pathetic the rest of the week. And if I don't have paper or if I'm driving and can't write, I'll create voice memos on my phone with my important but nonrelevant thoughts. It's so easy to pull out my phone, ask Siri to record a memo, yell "cream cheese" at my phone, and then move on with my day.
Make some space in your tiny beautiful brain.
Write stuff down!!
