Minimum Thoughts
Golfers know that golf is a continuous search for a better swing, better shots and better scores. This search is unfortunately not a short one, it takes years.
Part of this search is collecting information about your game and the way you play so you can improve. It is vital to make sure that whatever you are trying to do within your game is relevant to you and is actually going to help you become a better golfer.
So, at any particular point in time golfers will have a to-do list that hopefully helps with the way they perform. The trick for good performance is to keep this to-do list as short as possible. Golfers are very good at overthinking what they need to do when they play and therefore the list of thoughts in their head becomes too long. As the list becomes more and more extensive it becomes more difficult to play well. Nearly every golfer has arrived at a place where the thoughts in their head become too much to handle and their performance crashes.
Keeping your thought process simple is an absolute must if you wish to play at your best.
At the highest level the thought process is so often only about the target.
I think that for the rest of us one simple swing thought is all you need to keep your game moving forward. This sounds like it would be easy to do, but like all things linked to golf, it takes practice.