17 Practical Ways To Declutter Your Mind

What does it mean to declutter your mind? It’s no different than decluttering your physical space – it’s all about reducing or eliminating things that are building up.

Before we get into how to declutter your mind, let’s look at some signs of a cluttered mind.

Signs of a cluttered mind

• It’s hard to think straight or focus on one thing
• Your mind continuously jumps from one stressful thought to the next 
• High-stress levels
• Hard time sleeping due to rumination and negative thoughts
• Your mental capacity feels full a lot of the time. One more thing feels like it could take you over the edge.
• It’s difficult to relax as you always have too many thoughts going through your mind

So the question is, what can you do to declutter your mind so you can feel more control in your daily life?

As someone who is a worrier and tries to continuously ‘fix’ everything, it can become overwhelming – so these are the tools I personally use to clear my mind. 

These strategies aren’t a quick fix, and if you’re like me you may have to use some of these tools on a regular basis, but that is completely okay.

17 Practical Tips To Declutter Your Mind

1. Write Your Thoughts and Feelings Down

When your mind feels overloaded the first thing I recommend doing is capturing all your thoughts and feelings on paper. 

Literally, do a brain dump of everything that’s on your mind – both good and bad. 

The key here is to take a high-level look at everything that’s taking up space.

Let me share some possible examples:

• Planning your kid’s birthday party
• Doing taxes
• Upset about an interaction at work
• Wondering what the heck you’re going to make for dinner on Saturday night
• Worrying about credit card debt
• Taking returns back to the mall
• Having coffee with an old colleague
• Eating less sugar
• Cleaning out your email inbox
• Signing up for a pottery class
• Feeling overweight

You can see by the above list that some things are positive – but can still feel stressful (planning a bday party, signing up for pottery), but they can still seem overwhelming.

So, let your thought process go through everything that’s running through your mind and let it out through your pen.

You will then be able to identify unnecessary thoughts that are holding you down.

Taking time for expressive writing and seeing everything in black and white will also help you take notice of the negative things that are going through your busy mind.

2. Journal Solutions

Once you release all of your intrusive thoughts onto paper, you can now think of solutions for each thought (if any are needed).

For example, there may be some things weighing you down that are really easy to solve – i.e. taking returns back to the mall or signing up for that pottery class.

In many cases, we spend way too much time thinking about doing something when in reality that thing is really simple and small. 

So get to the store and return that top that doesn’t fit. Then that thought (and item) is gone from your mind. Simple.

Of course, not everything is that simple – so use this journaling time to consider possible solutions for each item on your brain dump list.

There may be things you don’t feel you have control over, for example, negative events or a toxic person who constantly upsets you.

In a situation like this I will acknowledge this person, but then move on and practice a little gratitude by writing a list of the people in my life who do make me feel good – and love me for me.

I find this extremely therapeutic. It will really help you move on from those who are hurting you, so you can make space in your mind (and life) for the people who bring you joy.

3. Create An Action Plan (and follow through)

Now that you’ve brainstormed some solutions around your mental clutter, it’s time to come up with an action plan.

You can’t remove all mental clutter at once, but you can prioritize the thing that is taking up the most space in your mind. Create a plan for that.

As I mentioned earlier – not everything is fixable, but how you respond to a situation is something you can work on.

If you’re going through a particularly hard time I always recommend finding a therapist – either through your family doctor, your benefits at work, or using a website like Better Help.

4. Learn how to recharge

Think about what fills you up. What rejuvenates you?

When you take a break and make time to recharge, you’re replenishing your mind with mental clarity.

How you recharge is different for everything. I personally love to get fresh air outdoors and get into nature to feel my happiest self. 

Now I can’t always get to a park or a hiking trail whenever I want, but I can go for a walk outside. I can get into my garden and feed the birds or do a little gardening in the warm months.

The outdoors is my simple way to recharge – what’s yours?

If you’re looking for ideas you might consider:

• Mindfulness meditation with deep breathing
• Gratitude journaling
• Getting creative
• Exercising
• Cooking
• Reading

Once you recharge you’ll find it much easier to get back to the present moment so you can improve your mental energy, focus, work on important tasks, and so much more.

5. Create dedicated spaces for different activities (aka work zones)

If you’ve read the book Atomic Habits, you’ll know that James Clear talks about creating work zones.

The concept is that if you define each environment by different behaviours you can dramatically improve your productivity and mindset.

For example:

Many people will work from bed, but when it’s time to go to sleep they can’t stop thinking about work.

Well, no wonder – as the bedroom is being used as two zones, making your bed a place of deadlines and emails instead of relaxation and coziness.

So, creating dedicated spaces for different activities can help you keep intrusive thoughts from entering when they’re not welcome.

This is especially important if you work from home. 

6. Let your mind escape

First things first, allocating time for escapism is SO good for your mental and emotional well-being, however, don’t be tempted by going to social media to escape.

The best way to let your mind escape is by doing things that benefit you and feel good.

This could be reading a good book, listening to music, writing, or watching a funny movie. 

Whatever it is, make sure that whatever way you choose to escape is good for your heart and soul – and that does not include social media which can only lead to comparison, FOMO and many other negative symptoms that will only add to your mental clutter.

7. Avoid Multi-tasking

It’s been proven that multitasking isn’t even possible for the human brain.

We just end up stopping and starting a task and then going back to the original task – but we lose time and decrease productivity doing this.

In fact, there’s been research calling out so-called multitasking as ‘draining the energy reserves in your brain.’

“That switching comes with a biological cost that ends up making us feel tired much more quickly than if we sustain attention on one thing,” – Daniel Levitin, professor of behavioural neuroscience at McGill University. 

Instead of trying to multitask, I recommend time blocking or using a timer like Toggl to complete one task at a time.

8. Tackle Your Physical Clutter

Mess can lead to stress so having stacks of papers and random stuff everywhere is not only bad for organization but poor organization also leads to anxiety and lack of focus.

Therefore clearing your cluttered home and having less clutter in all of your spaces can free up mental space for making decisions.  

It can help you focus on new things like creating good habits, and enable you to see things from a fresh perspective.

9. Don’t Go Crazy With To-Do Lists & Schedules

This leads to overwhelm and guilt if you can’t finish everything – and let’s be honest if your list is miles long you’re only setting yourself up for failure.

Also – if you schedule every square inch of your time this will only lead to burnout over time. 

Now, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have lists and schedules – just don’t go overboard. You are human – not a machine.

10. Support your mental health

Ask yourself – what do you need right now that would help you out on a daily basis?

• Better work-life balance?
• True self-care
• A feeling of purpose
• More sleep
• Peace of mind
• A feeling of happiness and contentment
• Decrease feelings of anxiety
• Reduce brain fog

Many times we know what we need but we don’t allow ourselves to have it.

We don’t allocate the time and resources to our overall happiness – in fact, many times we leave ourselves last.

So, can you do me a favour…

Create a list of ways you could be supporting your mental health.

These can be simple tasks to improve your personal life allowing you to take small steps toward your happiness and well-being.

You can also think about larger commitments such as talking to a therapist.

I’m a strong believer that every single one of us can benefit from therapy to help us truly live the life we want and love.

11. Take Note Of Negative Self-Talk

If you have negative thoughts and inner chatter going through your mind this can really take a toll on your emotional wellness.

So, I recommend doing the following:

• Take notice of when negative self-talk happens
• Next, write down what’s on your mind in a journal or notebook
• Think about why you are having this negative chatter. Write down a reason this might be the case
• Brainstorm a few ideas on how to eliminate this negative talk

12. Don’t Procrastinate

I don’t know about you, but when I procrastinate on important tasks my mental clutter grows and grows.

Think about it – you have to work on that presentation for work, file your taxes, or call that friend, but because you keep putting off this important task it constantly comes back to haunt your mind, over and over,

So often this guilt we put on ourselves for not yet completing the task makes the task seem way bigger than it actually is.

The solution: Just ripe the bandaid and do the thing. You’ll feel way better for it and you’ll sleep better too.

13. Get Better At Saying No

This is for you people pleasers out there who say yes to everything and then you regret it later.

When you say yes to too much you are giving yourself undo stress and pressure. By saying no, you’re taking back control of how you want to live your life.

This doesn’t mean you say no to everything, but that you have more of a balance so you can say yes to yourself too.

14. Spend Time In Nature

Spending time in nature is one of the best things you can do for yourself. It relaxes the body and mind. Here are a few things you might consider:

• Go for a walk in the park
• Sit by a lake, pond or river
• Watch the sunset or sunrise
• Take a drive in the countryside
• Have your morning coffee outside
• Go for a gratitude walk

15. Practice Living In The Present Moment

When you focus on the present, you aren’t stressed about the past or worrying about the future. You are just being present in the moment.

There are many little things you can do to be in the moment such as:

• Do an activity or hobby you love
• Listen to music while doing chores such as dishes or vacuuming
• Notice positive little moments in your day
• Do a body scan meditation – see below for an example

16. Ask For Help To Reduce Mental Clutter

Feel like you’re drowning in ways too many things? Then there’s a good chance you’re taking on too much and you feel completely overwhelmed and exhausted.

So, make a list of all your responsibilities at home and work and decide where you can get some help.

Help might come from a colleague, your spouse, your kids, etc. You can also hire someone to clean your home twice a month if this is what would be most helpful.

17. Limit Your Daily Decisions

When you can let certain things go on autopilot it becomes a lot easier to manage them. Here are a couple of examples…

Your to-do list at work

If you write your to-do list the night before or at the beginning of the week, you won’t spend time thinking about what you should be working on. The decision is already made.

Weekly meal prep

When you make a meal plan for the week and prep the food in advance you don’t need to worry about what to eat after a long day’s work.

👉 Try my printable weekly meal planner to help you get started.

Think about your daily decisions and see if there is a way you can streamline them.

What first step will you take to declutter your mind?

This is a reminder that you do not have to do everything on this list – nor should you. Try a couple of strategies that you can focus on to help clear your mind.

Related Resources To Help You Declutter Your Mind:

• How To Practice Mindfulness: 14 Techniques To Try
• 23 Proven Ways To Get Your Mind Off Something
• 11 Strategies To Help You Quiet Your Mind
• 7 Ways To Stop Thinking About The Past
• How To Let Things Go: 7 Steps To Finally Move On