At night, when it’s time for sleep, don’t be afraid to let go of your thoughts in order to drift away.
Sometimes I literally say goodnight to the different thoughts and mental projects that have followed me to bed. I often visualize a shelf in my mind on which I place each thing, one by one, as I say goodnight. I can rest easy knowing that each thing will still be there to greet me in the morning. It’s not like you are going to forget that you wanted to research online schools, or study Chinese, or figure out how to crack that plot point in your new novel.
Those thoughts came to you once, and they will come to you again. By putting them to bed at night, you aren’t saying goodbye to them forever.
And if you are worried, like I often used to be, that if you don’t think about a certain thing right now then you might miss out on some tremendous insight into it–well, let that notion go. Odds are, given the overwhelming similarities between your brain today and your brain tomorrow, you will still have that insight whether you think about the thing now or later. And, as I said once before, it’s always prudent to go with the odds.
The Vulcan Buddha 