If you make a habit of touring various productivity blogs on our fair Internet, you know who David Allen is. Allen wrote Getting Things Done, a guide to increasing your productivity and organizing your life. While I prefer to adapt principles from various productivity systems and integrate it all into something personally for me, I am a firm believer in Allen’s main principle behind GTD: empty your head.

Do you ever find yourself laying in bed at night, staring at the ceiling, wondering when you were going to fall asleep? Are you thinking to yourself, I was just exhausted half an hour ago – why am I wide awake now? Most people will tell you to get up and watch television or read a book until you are tired again. They’re right, but why not prevent the situation from happening altogether? I used to habitually lay in the dark at night while my mind raced. Fortunately, I’ve been able to put together a “system” of my own for emptying my head throughout the day and allowing me to kick back and relax when I need it most.

The main benefit to all of this is that you stop pressuring your brain. We’re all imperfect, and we all forget stuff. That’s why you might be sitting up at night thinking about something important. Your brain is afraid that you will forget it. By getting these things out of your head, you give your brain a break (regardless of how big of a jerk it can be to you). So, here are a few ways you can help yourself relax:

Keep a calendar.

Yeah, yeah. This is not a revolutionary concept. But there is a catch: put the most mundane things on it. If there is something in your life with a date attached, put it on your calendar. And better yet, use Google Calendar. Using Google Calendar allows you to set up multiple calendars and the service can send you emails or even text messages to remind you of upcoming events, if you wish. My Google calendar contains the following (all separate calendars):

• My personal schedule
• My work projects
• My blog post schedule
• My girlfriend’s schedule
• Holidays
• The Milwaukee Brewers schedule
• Bills due

That’s a lot, but they all overlay into one neat and tidy calendar that I can glance at to see all the upcoming events and information that I need. If you want to use a desktop calendar, go for it. Love your Microsoft Outlook? I don’t quite understand you, but knock yourself out! The point is: having things written out somewhere will relieve your brain of trying to remember what’s happening next.

Make a “To-Do List” every evening before you go to bed.

To the right, you will see my current to-do list, courtesy of Gmail Tasks. It’s nothing fancy – it’s a list of things that need to be done, with a checkbox to mark them off as I complete them. Easy as pie.

Every night, think about the next day’s events. As you think of them, create a new item in your to-do list. It automatically makes your day more organized. You can also arrange them in order of execution – which I do – and it makes your day that much more reasonable. A to-do list allows you to focus on doing one thing at a time, and doing it well. This removes the stress of How am I going to get this done?!? from your life.

There are a variety of different ways you can keep to-do lists. If you are already a Gmail user, just go to “Settings” and the “Labs” tab. Enable Tasks in Gmail, and you’re all set. You can manage your tasks on the road, too, if you have an internet-enabled smartphone. Even if you don’t, you can use a service like Txtful, where you can send your tasks to Gmail through text messages. Many GTD fanatics swear by Remember The Milk, which is another task list creator (also available via Txtful). A good whiteboard is an easy way to do this. Or you can go all old-school on us with a notepad and pen. Whatever way works for you!

Have a notepad or two on hand, especially next to your bed!

I keep two notepads: one next to my desk, and one on my nightstand. For the one next to my desk, I use it whenever I need to quickly jot down something (a phone number or a quick note), or even to brainstorm something quickly. While I love Evernote for my note-taking, I use a notepad for quick, disposable notes. The one next to my bed is for the occasional night when I still am not sleeping well. In fact, I get many blog post ideas laying in bed at night. If that happens, I flip on my bedlight, grab the notepad, and take a few notes. That way, my brain doesn’t try to keep writing it while I’m trying to fall asleep.

That’s how the idea for this post came about, actually.

Make some time for journal writing.

“Aren’t journals and diaries for teenage girls?”

Sure, but they can be incredibly useful for adults. Our stresses don’t just come from practical problems – we have our emotional needs too! And bottling up our feelings only puts more on our shoulders. Commit some time every day to write a few feelings down. Your notes can be as long and intense as you want. Put down a few lines if you want, or cover eight pages. Just get something down. It’s incredibly therapeutic, and it’s great for your emotional health.

Do it with a nice little journal, or use any of the five best journaling tools as determined by Lifehacker readers.

As you can tell here, the point is to set yourself up with a system that YOU are comfortable with. You want it to be a pleasant experience, and a system that you are going to actually use. Doubt me? Give it a try for a week – you might be surprised at how much better you can handle your stresses.

Do you have your own secret tips or tricks for keeping your brain stress-free? Share them in the comments!

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