Clutter is anything that occupies unnecessary space in your mind and in your physical spaces. It distracts and increases stress. It clutters your mind and It makes you less productive. You may feel uncomfortable and sense of disturbance by the mere presence of such objects.
De-cluttering these aspects of your life will reduce stress, help you stay more focused on your goals and improve your overall well-being.
In this blog, we will be discussing the different types of clutter and how to get rid of it to live a more peaceful, un-distracted and intentional life.
Physical Declutter
If you have too many things occupying your physical space, their mere presence makes you feel unmotivated to work. On the other hand, a clean well-organised desk motivates you to work. The fewer things you surround yourself with, the more focused your mind is and the less distracted you are.
To reduce physical clutter, consider getting rid of ill-fitting clothes that are overflowing your shelves, a ton of cables and wires, excess papers that you don't need anymore and random things that you haven't used for a year.
Hold on to only the necessary things that you would need first hand and get rid of all the things that create noise. Take your time in doing this, but I'll ensure that you would feel a lot more focused after you declutter your physical space.
Digital Declutter
With the amount of storage that our phones come with these days, we tend to hoard a lot of unnecessary data on to our phones. This could be unnecessary screenshots, documents, repetitive pictures, old bills pdfs.
These may seem to occupy very little storage but over time it accumulates and increases the carbon footprint and also clutters your headspace.
A useful way to declutter your digital space is to set aside 30min of your day once a month to go over all the unnecessary contacts, pictures, images that you can delete from your phone.
2. The other major source of digital clutter in your emails. Create folders for email lists that you're enrolled on. This ensures that your email lands directly into the assigned folder decluttering your primary inbox.
3. You could also use unroll.me to get rid of all the unnecessary email subscriptions in your email. Getting down the read email to 0 is one exhilarating feeling in my opinion. Do you agree? Let me know in the comments below.
4. This also applies to your social media. You may not realise this but there would be a few social media handles that you follow, which negatively impact you. They make you feel anxious, overwhelmed or feel less of yourself.
Going over you follow list once every month and unfollowing such social handles is a great way to maintain a peaceful headspace. I have been doing this quite regularly and I feel a lot at peace in my headspace.
Mental Declutter
Now let's move on to the most important one during these times i.e., mental declutter. The two ways that have worked for me are Mediation and Journaling.
1. Meditation
Meditating for 15-20 minutes every day is an avenue to reflect on the thoughts you hold within yourself. While meditating, so many thoughts come and go through your head. You're able to pause and reflect on those thoughts or just let them pass.
Meditation may seem difficult to begin within. You may find it difficult to sit in a place for a long time but you will start to enjoy and look forward to it. I bet, just give it a shot!
2. Journaling
Journaling is a great way to jot down your thoughts. I recommend trying out the Morning Pages which is described in the book ' The Artist's Way' by Julia Cameron.
This is a practice of dumping down your thoughts every day onto a journal. You don't have to decide on a topic, put down whatever comes into your mind at that time. The caveat being you have to fill out 3 full pages of your journal and you must do it regularly.
As you keep this practice going regularly, you would notice this brain dump session frees up your mind off the residual thoughts in your head. You have a better clarity for the day ahead and you would be bursting with ideas since all the unnecessary thoughts are already out of your head.
You can then come back to what you have written a week or two after, read what is bothering you and come up with solutions.
If you're getting started with journaling, you must download the ultimate guide to 60 Journaling Prompts. Click on this button and grab your freebie.
So, there you have it guys!
Decluttering my mental, physical, and digital space has helped me in being more productive, reduced stress and living a more intentional life. Do you declutter regularly? If not, has this article helped you? Do let me know in the comments section below.
If you want to learn more about journaling, you can check out: 4 Types of Journaling You Should Start in 2021
You can also connect with me on my Instagram where I share some fun content regularly.
Until next week,
Hugs!
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