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Barrier Busting
The Barrier Busting podcast offers insights, strategies, and inspiring stories that explore practical tips and powerful tools for unlocking our full potential.
Barrier Busting
Declutter Your Mind: Strategies for Reducing Mental Clutter and Boosting Productivity
Feeling buried under a mountain of mental clutter? Join me as I share some thoughts on how to declutter your mind. This episode of the Barrier Busting Podcast promises to unravel the chaos of cognitive overload that dims our decision-making and clouds our mental clarity. You'll learn to recognize the sneaky link between mental clutter and procrastination, and discover nine actionable strategies to tidy up your mental space, leading to a more serene and joyous state of mind. I'll also share insights on how a life coach can help you cut through the noise of cognitive and emotional baggage.
In an era dominated by digital noise, letting go has never been more challenging. Through personal anecdotes and proven strategies, we'll tackle the hurdles of digital detoxing, offering tips on managing media consumption and setting boundaries with technology. Ever felt the futility of multitasking? A Stanford study backs up the inefficiencies we all suspect, advocating for a focus on single-tasking to maintain cognitive control. These, and more, on this episode.
Are you feeling stuck, trapped by barriers holding you back from reaching your full potential? Well, let's bust through those barriers so that you can live your best life. Hi, I'm Matt Brooks, founder of Matt Brooks Coaching, and I'm passionate about helping people overcome barriers to achieve success. Join me for insights, strategies and inspiring stories as we explore practical tips and powerful tools to unlock your true potential. This is the Barrier Busting Podcast. Well, welcome back everybody. This is Matt Brooks and I'm happy to be here, as always. Glad you're listening. Thank you for tuning in.
Speaker 1:I'm going to change gears a little bit and we're going to do a couple of weeks just two weeks on this concept of decluttering, right. Decluttering. It's kind of a kind of a thing we should all do from time to time Just get the clutter out of the way, right. And so today I'm going to talk about decluttering your mind, and next week we're going to talk about decluttering your stuff. I'm going to have a professional organizer on. Yes, there are people out there who you can hire to declutter your stuff. They study this like scientifically, and so she's going to be on next week to talk about what they do. But we're going to talk today about decluttering the mind right now.
Speaker 1:Getting rid of clutter helps us reduce stress and anxiety, and you know I'm all about that. I'm always talking about how bad stress is for us. So let's go at that from every angle possible, and clutter is bad. Clutter creates a lot of stress, okay. So decluttering can help you reduce that stress and anxiety. It also helps you be more productive, right? It improves your focus and your concentration, it can boost your mood and it has many other mental health benefits. So I think it's a very important topic to just talk about and think through, and you know what I'm talking about. I mean, your head is filled with swirling thoughts. It's just it's like a pinball game going on in your head. Your brain is overloaded to the point where you just can't effectively function.
Speaker 1:Here's a scenario You're receiving dozens of emails a day, you're attending back-to-back meetings and juggling multiple deadlines all in a day. You just put your mom in a nursing home and your daughter is dealing with severe depression. There's a small mountain of repairs and improvements you need to make on your house, and your car is starting to show signs that it may need to be replaced soon. Moreover, your spouse is having a really hard time with all this and it's put a serious strain on your marriage. And you just found out that your cholesterol level is through the roof and you need to take serious steps to deal with that right now.
Speaker 1:Meanwhile, while all this is going on, you're bombarded all day long with information to process and remember. The news cycle is relentless, emails and texts keep coming and notifications on our devices are constantly appearing to fill us with even more information and making it worse. You just can't seem to get anything done. You can't seem to make any decisions about anything. It's as if you're paralyzed.
Speaker 1:This is called cognitive overload. Sometimes it's called information paralysis, but it's more than that. It's cognitive overload. Your brain is too full. There's so much going on in your brain that you just can't process it all. You can't effectively function. Your neural networks are clogged with clutter and it's slowing you down and making you less efficient, and all of this combined is adding a massive amount of stress to your life.
Speaker 1:Your mind is so cluttered that your mental space is a chaotic mess. There's so much going on. It's hard to focus right, to think straight and get anything done. It's hard to remember things like details. It's hard to quiet our minds enough to focus on the task at hand, let alone get any sleep. Well, just like a messy basement or attic, that clutter can get out of hand. And just like a basement and attic, our minds need some tidying up from time to time. We need to free up some headspace. It'll not only help us make better decisions, but it will make us healthier as well.
Speaker 1:Time for mental declutter. Time to shed some non-essential baggage and find a way to stay focused. Again, face it Clutter creates stress. Clutter is distracting. Clutter creates confusion. Clutter gets in our way. Studies have shown that there's a link between clutter and procrastination, that clutter increases stress, that it decreases productivity, that it makes it hard to relax, it makes it hard to sleep and sometimes it encourages unhealthy habits.
Speaker 1:Have you ever noticed that when you clean up or organize your space, like whether it's your workspace or some space at home it just feels good? I mean, you feel good, right? Well, just like decluttering our space makes us feel better, decluttering our minds helps us feel calmer and happier. And why? Less stress, less to worry about, less stress, less to worry about? Pardon the plug, but this is seriously a place where a life coach can really assist you in simplifying your mental space and finding clarity. A coach can help you sort through everything and decide what to keep and what to get rid of. A coach can help you cut through that thick fog of cognitive overload. Remember, it's not as simple as things just lying around. Your thoughts aren't just lying around waiting to be sifted through. The mind is really complex and it's often clouded by old hurts, traumas and many layers of lived experience. Cutting through that haze and gaining clarity that's hard, that's tough.
Speaker 1:Today I'm going to put out nine tips that I think will help declutter your mind. Now, there are many others online. You can do a Google search. You'll find all kinds of articles on decluttering your mind and many more tips than the ones I'm going to share. I'm just going to share nine today.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to go into depth, however, with the standard hits, the things we always hear about, you know, like breathing, deep breathing, diet, exercise and sleep. Don't take that as me thinking they're unimportant. On the contrary, these things are critical to our brains functioning well and our overall happiness. I just talk about them all the time, as does everybody else, and I'm guessing you're probably sick of hearing it, so I'm going to gloss over them and move on today, but nonetheless they are powerful tools for dealing with mental and physical clutter. Again, deep breathing, diet, exercise and sleep. Powerful tools, okay. Tip number one write it down. If you've been listening to my shows, you know me.
Speaker 1:I'm a huge proponent of making lists. I love lists, but for this purpose we're going to do what's called a brain dump. All right, you're going to get everything out on paper everything and if possible, organize your thoughts into separate lists relevant to various topics, so, like you might put home repairs on its own list, work to do's on another list, personal to do's on another list, financial to do's. But either way, even if you don't do the organization part of that, just write it down. Get it on paper. Get it out of your head and onto paper. This will make you less stressed. You won't need to worry about as much you know juggling everything in your memory. You won't need to worry about that at least as much as you typically are, because it's going to be on paper. You can check it there. It's going to calm your brain down a little bit. It always works, I promise. Once it's on paper and you can see it, you can also prioritize these thoughts better. Okay, you'll be able to see it all. I mean, you can identify what's essential and what's garbage. That's just weighing you down. Get the junk out. So if you get it out on paper, you'll then be able to see what it is. Prioritize it, get rid of the stuff you don't need. That's just taking up space.
Speaker 1:Tip number two mindfulness. Get out of your head and into the moment. That's what mindfulness is. All right, it's taking time to be aware of your current thoughts, feelings and sensations, without judgment or interpretation. Just being present in that moment. I know this sounds to some people. You roll your eyes when you hear this, but it's really important when you're dealing with a haze, with a big fog, a thick fog of all sorts of things rattling around in your mind and all sorts of emotions going on in your body, to just stop for a minute and just be present with who you are at that moment, how you're feeling, what you're feeling and what your thoughts are at that moment. Don't judge it, just do that. It's about being in the moment, truly in the moment, not distracted, just focused on the present moment. This really is another great way to reduce stress and blood pressure. By the way.
Speaker 1:Tip three is really there's three things in this tip that I'm grouping together and I'm calling this the how to chill tip. Tip number three how to chill I'm involving these three different things are meditation, solitude and nature. Chill I'm involving these three different things are meditation, solitude and nature. And I put those three in there because those three can often achieve the same thing, but different people, different strokes for different folks. You know, like some people just don't. They're not into meditation, but solitude or being in nature these are things that can help them essentially meditate, clear out their minds and, just, you know, think about what they need to think about, or just try to air their minds out. All these things meditation, solitude and nature Television off, radio, silent phone, out of reach that's critical for this portion. Free yourself for a bit of time from anything coming at you from an outside source, especially news and social media. Shut it down, step away for a bit, decompress, relax, even if it's just for 10 minutes. Okay, now, I know for some people these things are particularly hard to do.
Speaker 1:Being alone with your thoughts can be uncomfortable, even scary for some. I had a friend who was actually a doctor. He was a general physician or a primary physician, is what he did, and this guy could never be alone. This guy had people living in his house. He was single and he had a couple of college kids living in his house who were just, you know, walking all over him. He didn't care. He could never be alone. He alone was something he simply couldn't do. I don't know what he was scared of, but clearly something. So he had to have people around.
Speaker 1:I think it's really important for us all to get away from everything for a bit every now and then, no matter how uncomfortable it can be. Those painful memories can come in and those painful feelings can emerge, and that's often why we're afraid to be alone. But don't be afraid of them. They're real, they're part of you, they are part of the makeup of you. Why you are the way today is that you overcame many of those things. Don't be scared of them, but try to find some peace in that silence, in that meditation, or that time in nature, or that solitude. It takes a bit of practice, but you can get there pretty easily if you're willing to try. Okay, so that's tip number three, when we get back the rest of my nine tips.
Speaker 2:Feeling overwhelmed, Struggling to find balance in your daily life? At Matt Brooks Coaching, we get it and we can help. With over 25 years of nonprofit executive experience and an MSW with a clinical focus, Matt Brooks offers personalized coaching designed to help you rise above your challenges and live your best life. Whether you aim to advance your career, enhance your skills or simply find more clarity and peace, Matt is here to be your partner and ally. Visit mattbrookscoachingcom to book your free discovery session today.
Speaker 1:Take the first step towards a brighter tomorrow. Okay, tip number four Declutter your workspace and your physical spaces, your home, wherever you hang out for long periods of time. Declutter them. Look, clutter can create stress. We've already established that right. But whether it's clutter in your mind or clutter in your physical space, it can create stress. If your desk and office is a mess, it makes it not only hard to concentrate, but it can also be hard to find things, especially when you need them in a pinch. So you're shifting around looking for stuff, it's taking too much time, you feel the clock ticking and you get really stressed. And we all know how good it feels to be in a neat environment. Come on, let's be honest. If you're in clean and organized surroundings, it feels good. Right, you just feel good. It's I don't know. It's sort of like the difference between a sunny day and a dark, cloudy day. The sunny day you feel better, you're more productive. Same thing with a neat and clean and organized environment, you want to limit your stress and calm your mindidy up your space. Now, I mentioned earlier that we're going to go in depth into this next week with a guest that I'm bringing on who's a professional organizer, so I'm not going to get into this too much more, because next week we're going to do all kinds of tips and tricks and things you should do or consider doing if you want to declutter your space. But I'm just going to leave you with one rule that I have. It's a personal rule. This does not come from any textbook. This is my own thing, and the rule is this If it hasn't moved in four years, ditch it. Okay, I'll tell you a story about some magazines that were my wife's in my house. She had this stack of magazines on the floor in the corner of the living room. It was probably about 30 of them, and on top the top one had a purse, a guy on the cover. I looked at that guy's face for four years. That stack never got touched. It was just sitting there. I don't know why, I don't know what it was for, but I was like hon, I'm ditching this. It hasn't moved in four years. Okay, now I'll be honest, she she had a little trouble partying with them, because sometimes she has trouble partying with things in general. Right, but they weren't serving any purpose. Okay, so we're going to talk about that next week too. You know, advice for those people who have trouble parting with things, especially things that are sentimental, because sometimes you just really do need to part with things because they're they're just getting in the way. But again, more on that next week.
Speaker 1:Tip number five unplug and unwind. Unplug and unwind. I'm going to do an entire episode soon on stress in the digital age because, let's face it, these devices we have are bringing a lot of stress into our lives too, in many different ways, but for our purposes. Now I'm just going to give you a couple thoughts on this, this unplug and unwind idea. First, limit your media consumption. Too much info can clog your brain and cause stress and anxiety, right? So my advice is set specific times during the day for this. Don't just scroll all the time or at any given moment. Decide on a couple different times when you're going to sit down and look at your social media, or sit down and look at the news and stay away from it the rest of the time. Make a conscious decision not to let yourself get inundated all day, okay, choose those specific times. And also, my advice is set specific time limits. So 20 minutes or 30 minutes here and 20 minutes there, but that's it. I've got to get off after 20 minutes, whatever it may be.
Speaker 1:Also unsubscribe and remove things. So, emails, apps that you don't use, unsubscribe, get rid of them. I mean, if you're getting regular emails from places that you shopped at once and that was it, and you're not interested in that, just unsubscribe. It's just taking up space on your computer and it's having more of a subconscious impact on your psyche than you realize, because it's just more clutter. Just unsubscribe and you don't have to deal with it, right? Same thing with apps you're not using. There's a 2020 rule in decluttering spaces that I read can be adapted for this. The 2020 rule for decluttering spaces, I think, is something like if you can replace it in 20 minutes and for under $20, ditch it. But when it comes to apps, it's if you can replace it in 20, like if you can download it again in 20 minutes and for under $20, go ahead and ditch it. If you're not using it, get it off your phone. Just the look of it being there filling up space is just stressing you out. Okay, all right.
Speaker 1:Lastly, notifications right, I'm going to talk a lot more about this on the show that I'm saying I'm going to discuss stress in the digital age. But notifications, man, it's like you know talk about Pavlovian right, and you know it's like the doorbell's ringing all day long. You know what I mean? I mean you got to go into your notifications with every app and seriously think them through. Okay, what notifications do you really need, like to come up on your computer screen or your phone or your iPad as a banner? What do you really need and what don't you?
Speaker 1:So for me, I do not look at emails whenever they show up. I have set times where I'll just check emails, and so I got rid of the banners just gone. All I have are the badges. So I'll look down at, I'll look at my computer or my phone and I'll see the email app you know thing, and it'll have a little red circle in with a number in there and I'll know I've got some emails to look at and I'll get at it later. It's a lot easier that way than these things constantly scrolling or popping at the top of our screens. That drives me nuts. The only things I have as notifications are, like my ring doorbell and text messages that come through my phone. That's it, nothing else. I just don't want to be bothered by that stuff and it just really. You know, I noticed a couple of years ago these things were driving me nuts and I just kind of went through. I spent, took a half an hour, an hour one day to just think about that. I went through my devices and redid all my notifications and I can't recommend that enough to everybody. Get the notifications to stop beeping and honking at you all day long. Oh my God, that's maddening.
Speaker 1:Tip number six multitasking. Don't do it Right. You're thinking wait a minute. What? Don't do it Right? You're thinking wait a minute. What Don't multitask? No, multitasking bad, not good, all right.
Speaker 1:A study at Stanford showed that multitasking decreases your efficiency. Let me say that again Decreases your efficiency and has a negative impact on your cognitive control, your efficiency and has a negative impact on your cognitive control. Okay, we live in times now where we think that multitasking is the thing right. It's all about more and more faster, faster, hell. I've even recently learned that a lot of younger people who listen to podcasts are listening at faster speeds, like they're speeding up the podcast from a faster speed than what it was recorded Like.
Speaker 1:Why, why, oh why, have we become so rushed, so impatient? For some reason we think that if we can't do five things at once. We aren't kicking ass. We have to do five things at once to like be successful. No, I hate to break it to you, but we are not kicking ass when we're doing five things at once to be successful. No, I hate to break it to you, but we are not kicking ass when we're doing five things at once. We are, at best, being mediocre.
Speaker 1:Constantly going back and forth between multiple tasks not only limits your attention span, but just creates more clutter in the brain, more stress, and I promise you we are not as efficient or effective when we approach our tasks in this way. So please, just a single task. Keep to a single task. Do one thing at a time and do it well. Tip number seven be decisive. Somebody.
Speaker 1:I can't remember where I read this, so I apologize. I know I've done this before. I apologize to whoever came up with this phrase that I can't credit you here. I just don't remember. But I think you'll at least appreciate that the phrase is getting out there because it's so profound, and that is quote clutter is delayed decisions, end quote. Think about it Clutter is delayed decisions. Don't procrastinate. You're just adding to the clutter in your brain when you procrastinate. Make decisions, don't wait, and not just the high-value stuff, by the way. Low-value issues or low-value tasks, things that may not need to be addressed immediately or that seem mildly unimportant, they have a way of clogging up the pipes. Seriously, they really do so, especially if more and more of them build up over time. Man, suddenly you're just way down with these little unimportant things that have now become more important than you wanted them to right. So get those low value tasks out of the way. You'll have more space to focus on the high value things. So you know, be decisive, make decisions.
Speaker 1:Tip number eight handle your papers. Handle your papers. What am I talking about? Well, your stuff, your papers, your mail, your bills, your you know the title of your house, your tax documents, all that stuff. Handle them when you have them. Don't put them in piles, don't let them build up.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, I had a girlfriend once who just piled up everything and so she never could find anything. And just basically, I think she thought if she piled it up then she'd find things. But what really happened was she piled them up so high that she just conveniently forgot things. Don't do that. No, handle your paper, sort, file and shred. That's what I'm saying Sort, file and shred. Okay, first of all, don't let it get into piles. Like I said, look at it in a timely fashion. Don't let the mail pile up, read it and deal with it Like then when you get it whether if it's trash, throw it out or if it's like something that needs to be filed or it's a bill. Put it in the right place, like right away. It just it'll take less time if you do it now than if you let it build up right. So sort through your stuff, divide and conquer it right.
Speaker 1:File let's talk about filing File in the right way. Got to create a solid filing system and I'm not going to do that in this episode, but you can find plenty of resources on the internet and from professional organizers that you can hire to find the best way to do this. But make sure you've got a solid filing system and file documents in the right place right away. Don't let them sit around and wait. Trust me, your life will be more efficient but, more importantly, you'll be happier. I promise the rest of the stuff shred it. Shred everything you don't need. If it's outdated, shred it. If it's junk, shred it. If it's no longer of use. Shred it, be gone with it, expel it from your brain and your life.
Speaker 1:All this, by the way, is where digital tools are really great. I mean, I have to say, I own an e-ink notebook. The one I own is the Remarkable Paper Pro. It's an amazing tool for someone like me. I keep all my notes, pdfs, all kinds of things on that device and there's a cloud service so it appears on every device that I have. So if I'm like out of the house, I need to reference something that I had taken notes on, I just pull it up on my phone, which is great. It's a huge time saver. Very easy to sort things, very easy to search for things saves me just tons of time. Right, and to me, by the way, those cloud-based things that's the best part of technology now is that we can for personal use and productivity, that is, those cloud services are amazing. That means we can just find things on whatever device we happen to have. So if we're hiking on a mountain and all we that is, those cloud services are amazing. That means we can just find things on whatever device we happen to have. So if we're hiking on a mountain and all we have is our phone and we need to reference something. As long as we've got, you know, as long as we can connect to something, you know, as long as we have service, we can find what we need. So cloud-based services are amazing, in my opinion.
Speaker 1:Last tip, tip number nine financial minimalism. Financial minimalism this is mainly for peace of mind. Okay, a, cancel all your unused subscriptions. Take an hour, go through your phone, your devices, your television if it's a smart TV and just cancel all your unused subscriptions. You might be surprised at what you'll find.
Speaker 1:I'm sure many of you have done this. You go through the list and you're like I've been paying for that. I haven't used that in four years, right? So take a little bit of time to cancel that stuff, all right. Automate payments for things. This is well. It's up to you whether you want to do that or not. Some people are very uncomfortable with that, but if you're looking for ways to have less stuff to worry about, that is one good option. Automating payments and lastly, on this one, build an emergency fund, an emergency fund. It takes time to get out of debt and build an emergency fund, but do that before you start spending like a rock star, because, boy, if you want to get out of debt and build an emergency fund, but do that before you start spending like a rock star, because, boy, if you want to talk.
Speaker 1:Peace of mind, knowing you have a slush fund somewhere in your bank, knowing you have a cushion, that's going to bring you peace of mind, all right. Well, that's enough for today on decluttering your mind. I hope you found these things helpful. Please tune in next week, as I have professional organizer Sarah Hackenberg joining me. She's going to fill us in on a whole bunch of ways to declutter our stuff, and all of this is in service of reducing stress reducing stress in our lives, making us more productive and more efficient. She's terrific. She's going to have some great ideas for us, so I'm sure you're not going to want to miss that Meanwhile. Thanks for listening today.
Speaker 1:If you enjoyed this, please hit the like or subscribe button so you'll know every time I drop an episode. If there's a topic you would like covered you would like me to discuss, shoot me an email. It's matt at mattbrookscoachingcom. Matt at mattbrookscoachingcom. Matt at mattbrookscoachingcom, I'd love to hear from you. I'd love to hear your ideas and I will be happy to work on them and try to do a show for you if I feel comfortable with the idea myself. So go ahead, send me your ideas please. For now, anyways, be well and I'll catch you next time on the Barrier Busting Podcast. Thank you,
