Your mind is the most powerful tool that you possess. It can be the driving force behind your success, or it can push you towards failure.
So, if you want to be successful in any area of your life, you have to take control of your mind and make sure it’s in the best shape possible to move you towards your goals.
That’s because when your mind is clear and focussed it can help you achieve things you never thought possible. And it can create flow states where you become truly unstoppable.
“When you become the master of your mind, you are master of everything”
Swami Satchidananda
But when your mind is cluttered it can become your biggest enemy. Suddenly you are easily distracted, easily overwhelmed and prone to procrastination.
In this article I want to share with you one simple but powerful technique that you can use today to declutter your mind and create real focus.
Use it regularly and you will be surprised how productive you become!
Clear Your Mental Desk
The human brain isn’t built to divide its attention.
If you have too many competing priorities, things that you know need your attention or tasks that you haven’t quite finished, then focus becomes impossible.
You feel like your mind has gone into overdrive.
This is your mind raising a red flag and letting you know that you need to clear some space, to reduce its load.
It’s time to clear your mental desk!
I call it this because having spent a lot of my professional career sat at a desk, I know how cleansing it feels to take the time to declutter. your workspace.
To stop working, go through everything around you, complete those tasks that have been building up and throw away the piles of ‘stuff’ that you no longer need or have control over.
Decluttering your mind works just the same, and has the same cleansing effect.
Below is the simple 4 step process to decluttering your mind to create focus:
Step 1: What Are You Thinking?
Take some time, as much as you need, and write down everything that’s on your mind. And I do mean everything.
I personally prefer to write this, by hand, on a piece of paper rather than using a computer or smartphone (it helps with step 2), but use whatever method works for you.
It could be your career or business, family, children, relationships, health, bills or any other aspect of your life. Most likely it will be a mixture of these…and more.
The key to this stage is capturing and acknowledging everything that is fighting for your attention.
Step 2: Let It Go
With your full list, go through and identify everything that YOU personally have no control over.
These are the things that are completely out of your hands and which you can’t influence or complete no matter how much time, hard work or energy you put into them.
As you identify them, put a line through them. Strike them off your list, with a firm line.
This is an important step because mentally you are letting it go and releasing yourself from any attention that it needs.
The reason I like to use pen and paper is because the physical action of striking this item off your list helps your mind acknowledge it is being let go.
Step 3: Prioritise
Your list should now consist of all the things that YOU can personally action and have control over.
Go through your list again and, this time, prioritise the remaining items.
Number them starting with the items you know you really need to get done first.
The trick here is to be truly honest with yourself. What you might think is the most important item on your list may not be!
Let me give you a simple example – if you are working on scaling your business, but have promised yourself (or your partner) that a big task you want to tackle is cleaning out the garage, and your mind keeps coming back to this, it’s likely that the garage is the first thing to tackle!
This will free your time and focus to create ideas for your business.
Step 4: Take Action
Now get this stuff done!
Make it a priority in your life to clear this list.
Typically, the first few items will be the hardest. These are likely to be the big ones that you have been putting off because you know they are difficult.
But believe me, once they are done it will free your time and energy to focus on other things.
If you remove this clutter from your mind you will be surprised at how productive you become. And the confidence that you will get from this is contagious.
It will create real momentum to keep going.
Hmm…I Need Some Time On That One?
There may be a number of items on your list that you feel you can’t do anything about immediately.
Ask yourself if this is truly the case. Or, is it simply difficult and so you are avoiding it?
If you spent some dedicated time on these items, rather than continuing to let them run through your mind, becoming more of a problem, could you be creative and find a solution?
If you dedicate some time to it, it may give you the space to speak to the right person or research the solution.
How may times have you thought to yourself that a task was too hard to achieve, but then completed it and realised it wasn’t difficult after all? You were just in a place to be resourceful, or spoke to the right person.
If you’re like me, this has happened a lot!
Next Steps
If you apply this technique I’m confident that you will become more productive.
If you want to achieve anything in life, start something new or make a big change it takes a lot of your energy and focus. So, it’s better to declutter your mind first and put yourself in the most productive and powerful state possible.
I’ll caution you that this technique isn’t a one time exercise. Life has a way of taking over, so use it regularly.
I’d suggest every 3 months and you’ll soon be smashing your goals!
If you found this article helpful, don’t forget to share it!
I’m always keen to hear from you, so leave a comment below or if you have any questions then contact me directly.