Think back to the last time you were playing with your children, sitting on a Zoom call for work or watching a movie with your husband. What thoughts were running through your mind? How much did those noisy thoughts distract you from being present in that moment?
Those thoughts are mental clutter. Mental clutter is anything that keeps you from thinking straight. It includes things like incomplete projects, unmade decisions, future to-dos or past didn’t dos. These thoughts can take control of your attention in any given moment. Once they have your control, it can be hard to shift your focus back to what you were working on before the mental interruption.
Signs of Mental Clutter
The signs of mental clutter can vary. It might look like racing thoughts, feelings of overwhelm, difficulty focusing on tasks, trouble falling asleep, loss of creativity, and being unable to sit without being productive. Essentially, it’s the inability to slow down your thoughts and yourself.
Mental clutter can be triggered by having a lot of competing priorities. It can become an enormous distraction. When not addressed it can snowball into bigger issues like stress, overwhelm and burnout.
Impact of Mental Clutter
Mental clutter impacts you in several ways. The most obvious is it interrupts your thoughts. It prevents you from being productive and accomplishing what you set out to do. It drains your energy , lowers your tolerance and can cause you to feel stressed, anxious or overwhelmed easier. It can impact you physically by preventing you from falling asleep because you can’t shut off the noisy thoughts in your head. It can rob you of memories and experiences because you might be physically present in a situation and mentally someplace else.
Not only does mental clutter impact you, but it also affects those around you. When you’re unable to focus on tasks and tap into your creativity, you’re probably not delivering your best work. You might miss deadlines at work causing delays or frustration for co-workers. When you’re unable to give your family or friends your full attention, they might assume you don’t value them or your time together above your work.
Strategies for Clearing Mental Clutter
You might shrug mental clutter off and attribute it to just being busy or having a lot on your plate. And while these can certainly be contributing factors, you don’t have to continue accepting it as your norm. You can implement strategies to declutter your mind and reduce the impact on you and those you love.
There are lots of ways to declutter your mind. These are just a few for you to consider:
1. Declutter your physical space. Physical clutter can lead to mental clutter. Consider what your home and workspace look like. How do you feel when you pass that pile of laundry in the living room or look at your messy kitchen counter? How focused are you when you sit down to work at a disorganized desk? The laundry, the dishes, the clutter.. These all become reminders of something else that needs done. It’s another to-do swirling around in your head all day. When you decrease physical clutter, you will simultaneously decrease mental clutter.
2. Do a brain dump. All the thoughts, ideas, and to-dos in your mind take up mental space and make you feel overwhelmed and chaotic. You can clear your mind by taking these thoughts and putting them on paper. A brain dump helps you declutter your mind and creates the mental space you need to gain focus, access your creativity, prioritize tasks, make decisions and take action.
3. Make a decision. I saw a quote recently that said, “Clutter is really just delayed decisions.” It’s true for physical clutter and mental clutter. If you’ve ever sat with a decision for any amount of time, you know how distracting it can be. You’re probably waiting until you have the time to gather more information, think through your options, or talk it over with your spouse. Of course you want to make an informed decision but the longer you procrastinate, the longer it runs through your mind taking up valuable space and distracting you from focusing on other things. Prioritize time to get what you need to make the decision - then make it.
4. Stop multi-tasking. No matter how good you think you are at it, multi-tasking splits your focus. When you’re focusing on multiple things, you're not really focusing on anything. Multi-tasking can be counter productive because you’re not showing up with your full potential in that moment. Your attention is split between two (sometimes more) priorities. It’s like chasing 2 dogs going in 2 different directions. If you focus on the task in front of you, you’re more likely to complete it and have time for the next thing.
This can be a hard habit to break. Here are a few strategies that have worked for me:
Establish boundaries around working hours. Since I’m my own boss, I get to determine my working hours which is a wonderful perk. However, being your own boss means it’s easier to get distracted by goofy grins from a toddler and can make the line between at work hours and off work hours grey. Establishing set days/times for work has allowed me to be present both for my work and my family.
Keep your phone in another room, on vibrate or flipped over on your desk. When you are working on a task that requires your full attention a simple ding from your phone can throw off your focus. The same is true for spending time with your spouse or children. (Ever have your 2 year old tell you to put your phone away? Talk about mom guilt!) That email, text, or Target sale notification will still be there later.
Give your full attention to the person in front of you (even if they are behind a screen). You probably wouldn’t scroll Facebook while talking to your best friend if she were sitting right in front of you, but how many times have you done it while on the phone with her? You probably wouldn’t pull your phone out in the middle of a work meeting to text someone, but how many times have you done it while on a Zoom call? Even if someone isn’t physically in front of you, they deserve your full attention, so give it to them.
5. Unsubscribe and automate. Back in my corporate days, I had someone on my team who was always frazzled and struggled to meet deadlines. When I shadowed him for a few hours, I discovered his inbox had over 9,000 messages. Imagine the overwhelm of opening your inbox everyday and having 9,000 message waiting for you. Talk about a distraction that can lead to stress and overwhelm. You might not have that many emails in your inbox but if you’re uncomfortable with the number in there, try setting aside 20 minutes a week to clean it up. Start by unsubscribing to emails you never open or take action on. Then delete all the unnecessary messages cluttering your inbox. Finally, set a rule to automate filing of recurring messages that you want to retain but don’t need to see.
The strategies above are great when you know what’s swirling through your head. What about when you’re not sure what’s keeping you from staying focused? That’s when I would recommend you talk it out with a friend or coach. Oftentimes, you might not recognize what’s really going on. By speaking your thoughts out loud, you’re still getting them out of your head. Plus you have another set of ears to help mirror back what you’re saying and recognize obstacles you might not see for yourself.
What are some other ways you clear mental clutter? Share them in the comment area below.