Reduce Mind Overload by Practicing These Simple Things at Your Work or Study
What Is Mind Clutter?
Mind clutter is a mental state in which one feels overwhelmed by a constant flow of excessive thoughts and information. Many of those thoughts are random, repetitive, intrusive, either useless or negative. A cluttered mind is a crowded, overdriven, and energy-depleted mind. It is characterized by an incessant inner chatter. This excess of thoughts is counterproductive and impairs one’s ability to concentrate, focus and accurately analyze information. Also called a “monkey mind,” the cluttered mind is restless and chaotic — it splits its attention and keeps multitasking, always hopping from one task to another. It is preoccupied with a long ‘to-do’ list, a never-ending chain of problems and responsibilities. It keeps bouncing back and forth between past experiences and future anticipations, often tied up in negative thinking(worries and complaints). Always pulled in various directions, a cluttered mind is rarely in the here and now. This state leads to lower productivity, creativity, and capacity for decision-making. Even though it is constantly operating and never at ease, a cluttered mind fails to complete anything it starts. It takes a toll on one’s personal and professional life; one feels tired or burnt out, dissatisfied, or utterly frustrated.
How to Declutter Your Mind?
Acknowledging your mental clutter and the need to deal with it is the first step toward positive transformation. If you need a few simple, easy, and effective techniques to start, were commend the following:
Declutter your environment. Cleaning, decluttering, and organizing the space in which you live and work is one of the most straightforward ways to reduce your mental clutter. Your environment affects your state of mind — a crowded and disorganized physical space causes an unnecessary overwhelm of coherent stimuli to the brain, diminishing one’s cognitive skills. So, make sure you are spending your time in a peaceful, functional, and well-structured space. Remove all things that are non-essential or purposeless. Find a meaningful way to organize and categorize all the items that you wish to keep.
Create a to-do list. Shuffling mentally too many tasks and plans puts an extra strain on your brain. Psychologists have pointed out the fact that when we place abstract information on paper, the brain processes it more effectively. The simple act of creating a to-do list, in order of priority, brings instant clarity. You may classify your tasks as “urgent,” “important” and “optional.” The list gives you a better overview of what needs to be done and helps you feel in control of your time and activities. Refer to your to-do list regularly, track your progress, and keep it updated. While striving to follow through with your plan of action (at least once a day), do not forget that some degree of flexibility is necessary, to account for the dynamics of the life circumstances.
Minimize multitasking. The ability to focus on more than one task at a time, or to run multiple projects and activities simultaneously, has been promoted as a desirable skill, particularly in the business world. However, research (1)(2)(3). has shown that switching back and forth between activities limits the attention span, lowers the IQ, reduces one’s efficiency, performance, and capacity to process information, and compromises the brain centers for cognitive and emotional control. Based on your list of priorities, as much as possible, aim to focus on a single task at a time. This will allow you to focus all your energy and resources on the task at hand, which will also increase the quality of your results and fill you with a feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction.
Automate routine decision-making. Spending too much time every day unable to decide which clothes to wear, what to eat, where to go shopping, which movie to watch, etc., is an unnecessary drain of time and energy. Contrary to common belief, an increased number of alternatives or options does not lead to better decisions. On the contrary, it can lead to mental overwhelm, known as decision fatigue. Behavioral scientists and neuroscientists warn us that making too many (inconsequential) decisions every day takes up too much mental energy. Set easy-to-follow habits when it comes to repetitive daily choices and activities. Setting a daily habit or routine does not necessarily mean limiting our options, removing unpredictability and excitement from our lives, or living unconsciously/on an auto-pilot. On the contrary — it means exercising control over what we focus on and how we direct our time, effort, and energy. It allows us to be fully committed to those things that are most urgent and matter the most. A healthy discipline is an ability to organize our daily lives.
Keep a journal and practice a brain dump. Regular journaling can help you gain a better perspective on all your thoughts and feelings. When you write things down, you “download” or transfer your mental clutter into your journal. That way, your mind no longer needs to remember all that paraphernalia. Journaling is a form of a brain-dump technique — a process of dumping the contents of your mind onto a medium, such as a pen and paper. The practice makes it easier to sieve through this content and identify the important things from the pile of redundant thoughts that populate our minds. Brain dump brings, almost instantaneously, a sense of relief and tranquility.
Take regular breaks. Regardless of how busy you are, you can always spare five minutes to take a break and just breathe. Close your eyes, and breathe in and out slowly and deeply. Although there are numerous breathwork techniques available for you to try, even this simple exercise will still your mind, ground you, and quickly boost your energy and morale. Use as many short breaks throughout the day as you can. Use them to temporarily disconnect yourself from the information overload (the internet, your mobile phone, the TV, the newspaper). Take a look around — gaze into the threes, the plants, into any tiny pocket of nature that is available near you, and simply breathe. These breaks will not only benefit your physical body (release stress, lower blood pressure, and help you relax), but they will also clear your mind, improve your concentration, and make you more resilient in the face of new challenges.
Sources