Yes! You DO Need To Declutter To Boost Productivity
August 1, 2017
I just had to stop everything I was doing and clean up my desk. Like full brakes on everything because I couldn’t concentrate on the work I was trying to do. Sometimes the clutter creeps up on me and I find myself unable to focus and get anything done. That’s when my productivity tanks…when there is so much clutter.
I’m talking digital clutter, physical clutter, and mental clutter. It all adds up to destroy your productivity.
[Tweet “I’m talking digital clutter, physical clutter, and mental clutter. It all adds up to destroy your productivity.”]
Clutter is sneaky so you have to be vigilant about keeping up with it or you’ll find yourself in the same boat I was in. Having to grind to a halt until you deal with it. Get rid of what isn’t serving you because I guarantee it is slowing you down even if you have to constantly be moving stuff off of your computer desk and back on each time you work it’s slowing you down.
Here are 5 ways to declutter and boost your productivity
Clean up digital clutter
This may surprise you but you can totally have digital clutter in your life. I’m talking:
- half started files of blog posts, social media updates, to-do lists
- no folder system for organization
- downloads upon downloads that you NEVER look at
- emails you want to read but never find time for
- a million and one files on your desktop
- 8 blurry photos of the same thing before you got “the one”
- 3 billion tabs open at once (I’m so guilty of this)
The list can go on and on but the point here is the same you’ve got digital clutter creeping on you.
Does this sound familiar?
You can’t find a file you need because it is somewhere in a list of 300 files all in your Documents folder on your computer. Now where the heck was that image I was supposed to post with this social media update? Ugh…
Yup, that happens. If you spend just 10 minutes a day clearing up your digital clutter I’m sure you will be crazy surprised with how organized you are in about 2 weeks time. You’ll save yourself countless minutes searching for something in a sea of useless files after this I promise!
Clear out the clutter on your to-do list…
Also another thing I’m guilty of. I add something to my to-do list because
- I feel like it is important at the time
- Someone else feels like it is important
- I’ve got big ambitions
But then life happens and it keeps getting moved from to-do list to to-do list and never gets done… and by now is it really still important? Maybe? Maybe not…and if it isn’t clear it off.
Give yourself some mental space to get to what is really important on your list. And if you are like me getting it off there alleviates the guilt I feel from not getting it done in the first place.
If it still is important, by all means, leave it there and bump up it’s priority level so you get that sucker done.
Declutter your inbox
It’s the age where you opt-in for everything and you even get some emails from people you’ve never opted into so unsubscribe from the email senders that you NEVER open… I know you’ve got them the ones you automatically delete when they show up in your inbox. I’ve got them myself and I try to catch myself from just deleting automatically and going into unsubscribing.
The beauty of the system is that if you want to get their newsletter/updates/coupons whatever it is that they send to you again you can resign up. But you aren’t really serving them or yourself by being a passive subscriber to their email list.
And if you feel guilty unsubscribing think about it this way. They are most likely paying for you to be on their list through their email provider and if you aren’t reading or have the intention to be a customer/client of theirs what is the point of you being there.
Digitally detox
Take one day during the weekend or start with one night during the week where you don’t check social media or infinite scrolls. You may not realize how much of your time is taken up by digital clutter.
- Mindlessly scrolling Facebook
- Looking for more and more Pins
- Scrolling through Instagram
- Even constantly checking your likes/comments/follows all day every day
[Tweet “Take one day during the weekend or start with one night during the week where you don’t check social media or infinite scrolls.”]
Not only does taking a little time away from the digital world to recharge help you remove yourself from the pressure that social media brings. It gives you space to experience your life and be inspired by it.
Then when you come back from your digital detox time you’ll be refreshed and ready to go.
Mentally declutter
Declutter your mind. Trust me on this one. You’ve got a lot of stuff floating around in your headspace all day long. Everything from household chores, errands, what you are cooking for dinner tonight, and your work to-dos.
It’s a lot and can drag you down. So sit down and do a massive brain dump.
Get everything out of your head and onto paper where you can free up some of that headspace for what is the highest priority right now.
Also, put all your to-do items in one spot. I’m serious don’t start another list do whatever you have to do to get them all in one place and write down everything you’ve been keeping in your head.
Free up that mental space for what you have to work on rather than trying to keep your running to-do list in your head. This one thing helped me tremendously when trying to declutter my mind. Try it and let me know what you think!
Now it’s your turn!
What is your favorite declutter tip? Let me know in the comments!
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