“The mind reflects the world, and the world reflects the mind,” James Pierce said.
That means if you want your world – work, home, business… your life – to be productive, peaceful, and organized, it starts from your mind. If you see lots of chaos and procrastination in your world, you can as well trace it to your mind.
You need to face each new second, minute, hour, day, and week… with a decluttered mind. Because, a decluttered mind helps you FOCUS.
Focus is key to living a successful life. In the words of Zig Ziglar, “I don’t care how much power, brilliance or energy you have, if you don’t harness it and focus it on a specific target, and hold it there, you’re never going to accomplish as much as your ability warrants.”
With about 6000 thoughts that run through the human brain each day, according to a recent research, you wonder how you can bring order to your mind – declutter it and stay focused.
Here are 7 tips to help you declutter your mind and improve focus:
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Plan:
Planning helps you sit with the different thoughts, tasks and decisions that run through your mind, and map out how to deal with them. It saves you the energy and time you spend overthinking and worrying… without a concrete resolution or action to follow.
So, instead of cluttering your mind with unending thoughts of how to contact this new client, get that new certificate, what to eat tomorrow, and so on, simply have a plan.
Note those goals you want to achieve for the day, week, month, whatever time, and sit with that list. Have a designated time to think through each of those items, and write those ideas that come to mind. Connect the dots – mapping out how, when and what you need to achieve those goals. With that plan written out, it’s easier to pull it up and get to work, instead of allowing thoughts of “how do I get this done?” keep your mind messy when you should be focused on the task at hand.
2. Prioritise:
The goals and tasks you’ve planned differ in how urgent and important they are. Don’t spend time on activities of less urgency and importance. They keep you busy, but unproductive. Give more of your productive time to activities that are important – and that no one can do for you.
3. Assemble:
To be more efficient with your task – especially repetitive ones – you need to assemble systems and structures. A system is a set of principles, practices and procedures that are applied to specific activities to achieve a specific result. Systems are repeatable and help you predict the results you’ll get from your activities. Instead of approaching each task with thoughts of what to do next, and forgetting some steps along the line, create systems – for different areas of your life. Once you’ve done that task and know what you need to achieve desired results each time, note the process(es) and tools involved – you can even write them as a checklist. It saves you thinking time and automates your activities. Add structures to your daily routines and schedules so you can have more time for other things that matter to you.
4. Assign:
You mustn’t do everything all by yourself. Get comfortable assigning some tasks off. Your systems will really help with this. You pull it out and ask/hire a competent person to help you with some or all activities in the outlined processes.
5. Reduce Multitasking:
Contrary to what a lot of people see as a super-power and highly productive person, multitasking reduces productivity and fills your mind with too much activity. When someone tries to perform two or more tasks simultaneously or in rapid succession, switching from one task to another, the person is multitasking. When you do more than one task at a time, especially complex times, your productivity drops. You need focus, and for more complex tasks, a laser focus, to get the work done properly. Instead of juggling your mind between different tasks, with your prioritised list in hand, attack the tasks when after the other.
6. Rest:
Rest allows you to clear your mind, focus, and find creative ideas and solutions to problems. Rest. Sleep. And get refreshed for the next assignment.
7. Journal:
Journaling helps you drop your thoughts and ideas down instead of allowing them to occupy your mind. If a thought or idea drops in your mind and refuses to be pushed aside, instead of allowing it to distract your work or forgetting the idea when you need it, pull out your journal (a book or an app in your phone) and pour those thoughts out. You can then revisit and think through them when it’s time for thinking and planning.
I hope that as you apply these 7 tips, you’ll have so much declutter and focus on your mind… and live a more productive and peaceful life.
Are there other tips that help you clear clutter and stay focussed? Do share them with us in the comment section.
