5 Signs You Need to Declutter Your Mind

So it’s a Tuesday afternoon, and you sit down at your desk to knock off items on your to-do list. Even in your best efforts, you find yourself experiencing moments of mental cloudiness, distraction, and overall lack of focus. We’ve all been there. No matter how hard you try, it seems almost impossible to get anything done or focus on your tasks at hand, no matter how small they may be.

Don’t worry, my friend. You’re in good company.

We all experience a little mind clutter from time to time, especially in particularly stressful situations. However, too much clutter too often can lead to burnout. As you can imagine, burnout is not fun… at all. So, before you get there, there's some signs you may need to look out for.

If you’re not sure if have symptoms of mind clutter, I got you!

Here are 5 signs to help you determine if your mind is cluttered:

1. You lack focus.

So at your desk on that Tuesday afternoon, it takes an extreme amount of focus and effort just to attempt to get even the simplest of tasks done. It doesn’t even have to be outside factors like your phone, your environment, or your surroundings that cause you to not focus. It can simply be your thoughts. If you are experiencing that level of unfocus. Your mind is probably too cluttered and you might need to make room for your brain.

2. You're constantly tired.

Remember the silly pick-up phrase Will Smith used in the ‘Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’? “Hey girl, you must be tired…because you've been running through my mind all day!” As corny as that pick-up line is, there’s actually some truth to it. Thoughts constantly running through our minds can lead to a constant sense of fatigue. This can be most prevalent at night when you’re trying to go to sleep but your mind continued racing even as your body is trying to rest, which disrupts your sleep patterns. So, you really aren’t sleeping anyway. No sleep equals fatigue. So, if you’re always tired, you may need to declutter your mind.

3. You lack creativity.

Even if you aren’t an artist or someone that does extremely creative things every day, we all use creativity in one way or another. Lack of creativity in a cluttered mind may present itself as simply not being able to think of new ideas for your upcoming deadline. You’re not able to think on your feet as quickly as you use to. Your mental acuity is not where it use to be. If you notice an overall decline in your ability to think as sharply as you use to, your mind is most likely cluttered.

4. You're too indecisive.

...and I don’t mean just about what you want to eat. This is true for everyone and it’s not our fault! There are just so many options! Like how do you choose just one drink at Starbucks?! I digress. If making decisions about where to move, whether to start a new relationship, or which classes to take for an upcoming semester causes you to have high anxiety where much of your typical daily regimen becomes nonfunctional, you are in dire need of decluttering your mind. These types of decisions are hard and difficult. Some stress is certainly warranted. However, there’s a difference between inappropriate stress and over-stress. Even the appropriate amount of stress for high stake decisions over a long period of time should have an expiration date. At some point, a decision should be made and you move on.

5. You can't move forward with your plans.

Let's say you needed to come up with a solution for an idea, goal, or desire you had. You layout an elaborate plan about how to make this happen with structured actionable steps that are undeniably the way to success (in your goal). However, even with the most structured and most actionable plan, you can't seem to take flight. It becomes difficult to actually move forward in that plan. Now, some may call this having cold feet and it very well could be. But this can definitely happen because your mind is too cluttered to the point you start second-guessing yourself or simply get cloudy about decisions you've already thought through leading to overthinking. If you find yourself overthinking your elaborate life plans to the point it's keeping you from pursuing them, it's time to declutter your mind before you look up and years go by because you're still stuck in the (over)thinking phase.

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So, you’ve made it this far and you’ve decided ‘this is me, I definitely have a cluttered mind.’ All hope is not lost. You can declutter your mind with some simple tools that you can start putting into practice today. Stay tuned for a blog about how you can take actionable steps to declutter your mind.

Know that you’re not alone. I’ve dealt with all of these symptoms and some for far too long. And if I’m honest, still dealing with it now. And that’s okay! This is certainly a process and each day it gets easier and easier to manage. We're in this thing together!

Until next time,

Stay Authentic, Keep Growing,