How To Declutter Your Mind
If you ever find yourself feeling totally overwhelmed with everything you have to do, decide, and worry about, you might need to declutter your mind!
Here are 4 different strategies you can use to declutter your mind and find balance again!
Make a sorted to do list
Make a decisions list
Make a faith list
Free write journaling
You can do them all or mix and match for what you need today. Let’s go over each one in detail…
Make a Sorted To Do List
This strategy is perfect for getting all of your to do’s out of your head and onto paper so your brain can stop thinking about all the things you need to get done.
Step#1: First, get a big piece of blank paper and dump out everything you need to do.
These can be urgent things to do today AND things you need to get around to sometime. We like to sort it out into different categories such as:
Work
Home
Self
Miscellaneous (use whatever categories make sense for you)
This simple practice can be SO powerful because each item is floating around in your head and the second you put it on paper, your brain can give itself permission to stop thinking about it!
Step #2: Once you’ve put EVERYTHING down on paper, you can start organizing the list into different sections:
Today
This Week
Soon
Later
Step #3: Now it’s time to remove items from your list. All you have to do is just decide not to do some of them. (This is the true decluttering part! YOU HAVE TO GET RID OF SOME THINGS!)
A clue here is something that you’ve been procrastinating for a long time. It probably isn’t that important if it hasn’t gotten done yet. What if you just didn’t do it?
Give yourself permission to be a human who can only do so much.
Then it’s easy to get started. If you’re still not sure where to begin after this process, I always start by getting my environment in order. Do the dishes, wipe off the counters, clean up the clutter, and vacuum. Take a shower. And then get to work on your lists!
2. Make a Decisions List
This strategy has been incredibly powerful for us! Yes it’s great to write a to do list, but what about all the decisions you need to make? Many times we put things off just because it’s a decision we still need to make.
Step #1: Make a list of things you need to decide.
These can be big or small, but remember that anything that is preventing you from taking action is just a decision to be made.
Your list could include things like:
What gift to give your sister for her birthday
Whether or not you should take a new job
Where to go on your family camping trip this summer
What to make for dinners this week
It might be helpful to do this at the same time as your sorted to do list, maybe on a separate page.
Step #2: Decide. You can either make the decisions right now (which is preferred) or schedule them as their own tasks for a dedicated time
*An advanced strategy: Think of what you can decide ONCE and then not worry about ever again. Examples: Gifts to buy, what to eat on Tuesdays, when to plan out your week, etc.
It’s amazing how much less stressed you can feel when you stop putting off making decisions! Not only does your life become more organized, but you also start getting what matters most done!
3. Make a Faith List
This is a list where you can spill out everything that is worrying you right now.
We almost called it a worry list but we wanted it to remind you to have faith in these things working out.
Sometimes we have big or little things running through our heads that our brains think we need to solve, when really we just need to have faith in a good outcome. These are the things we can’t really DO anything about, but we need to acknowledge.
This might look more like a journal entry at first. But hopefully when you’re done, you can have a list of thoughts to remind you why you don’t need to worry about this stuff. Why you can have faith and move forward.
It’s amazing how much more peace you can feel when you take the time to write out your worries—and at the same time reassure yourself that with faith, things are going to be okay.
4. Free Write Journaling
If you want something a little less structured, you can always do a free writing session in a journal or notebook or scrap paper that you shred when you’re done.
You may just need to process your emotions and see your thoughts on paper in order to find some mental clarity.
Then you can see those thoughts clearly and evaluate whether to keep thinking those thoughts (are they useful?) or let them go with intention.
Whenever we have something that’s been on our mind for awhile and won’t leave us alone, we start journaling.
You could ask yourself questions like:
What’s on your mind dear?
How are you?
What’s really on?
What’s going on sweetie?
What are you excited about?
What’s going really great right now?
What are you dreading right now?
What are you discouraged about?
What’s your biggest struggle right now?
How are you feeling about ___________?
Try These Whenever You’re Feeling Overwhelmed
We hope these 4 strategies are useful for you when you’re feeling overwhelmed!
Again the 4 strategies were:
Make a sorted to do list
Make a decisions list
Make a faith list
Free write journaling
You can repeat these processes as often as needed. The more you do this, the more you might find ways you can systematize or calendar repeating tasks or decisions.
Maybe you start meal planning every Sunday afternoon
Maybe you assign your kids certain days to do the breakfast dishes so you prevent the kitchen-is-a-disaster situation that makes you want to scream every day
Maybe you set aside a time in January to batch gift-buying and deciding for your family members for the year so they’re ready to go
Maybe you choose a day of the week to do a “home reset” and get the house in order
It’s just as important to upkeep our minds as it is to upkeep our homes and our bodies. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, try one or two of these strategies to find your balance again.
Kristin + Laura
Listen to the content below
You can also search The Progress Project on any podcast app.
Episode #166: How To Declutter Your Mind
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