How Clutter Steals Your Focus (and 4 Ways to Take It Back)
- linnearader
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
Clutter is just a lot of things out of place. That's it. But don't let the simple definition fool you. Clutter can surround us at home, at work, in our car, in our lives, and in our minds. If we aren't careful, it creeps into every corner we have, including the corners where our leadership lives.
How Clutter Steals Your Focus, One Pile at a Time
If you read my post about the leadership coaching that took me from surviving to thriving, you know I keep a list in my office. One item on it, always, is "keep this desk organized."
That's because clutter accumulates slowly, and it looks the same whether it's in my office or my home. Something comes in, and I set it down. The first piece of paper. The first book. The first binder. The first bag of items I meant to deal with later. Each time, there's a reason, or maybe an excuse. It's quick. I just need to set it down and get it out of the way. I'm in a hurry, on to the next thing. Then, before I know it, there's a stack. It's out of hand.
In my mind, it works the exact same way. Thoughts swirl around and add up. They accumulate over time and build, cluttering my mind just like the piles on my desk.
What Clutter Actually Costs a Leader
Here's what clutter costs me, in plain terms. When my mind or my space is cluttered, I'm less focused and less productive. I don't bring my full self to my work or my team. If I'm thinking about everything else I need to do, I'm not fully present in the conversation happening right in front of me. I slip into that more often than I'd like to admit.
In my business, I've got blog post ideas, workshop ideas, book ideas, all swirling around in my head. I think about them over and over, but I don't execute, because there's so much cluttered up there that I don't know where to start. It's a solvable problem. A pen and paper. The microphone button on an app, saying the idea out loud so it's captured somewhere other than my head. Sometimes I do it. Too often, I don't, and the idea just keeps circling instead of becoming something real.
The same thing happens with my team. Someone mentions what they need from me, and I store it mentally instead of writing it down. Then another request comes in, and another, and at some point there's so much circling around that something gets missed. It happens with paper too. A few requests land on my desk, then a few more, then a few more, and suddenly there's a pile. My team is waiting on an answer, and I'm working through a stack that grew because I kept telling myself I'd get to it. Clutter doesn't just cost me time. It costs the people counting on me a version of my attention I wasn't able to give.
"Clutter doesn't just cost me time. It costs the people counting on me a version of my attention I wasn't able to give."
That's the real reason I care about clearing it. Not because a tidy desk looks nice, but because the people in my life, at work and at home, deserve a leader who's actually there when they need her.
4 Ways to Clear the Clutter, Physical or Mental
Here's what actually helps me. I hope it helps you too.
1. Write It Down
This is a lot like what I shared in Write Down Your Goals: Why It Actually Works. What you write down, you do something with. When it comes to clutter, writing has a two part effect.
First, when your mind is cluttered, writing down what's rolling around in there relieves the clutter almost instantly. Your brain has been spending energy trying to hold onto all of it. Once it's written down, that energy gets released. You can relax and stop trying to remember everything, because it's already captured. It's surprisingly freeing. If you've ever had trouble sleeping because your brain won't slow down, try this. It works there too.
Second, make a list and check it off as you go. Break down what you want to tackle, then start at the top. Looking at a pile of things is overwhelming. Looking at a manageable list is not.
2. Start With One Thing
Don't set out to handle everything all at once. Depending on how out of hand the clutter has gotten, don't even set out to handle one whole room or area all at once. Start with one piece. The power of starting is phenomenal. Once you take that first step, make that first movement, you likely won't stop at one.
"The power of starting is phenomenal. Once you take that first step, make that first movement, you likely won't stop at one."
You'll keep going. Start with one thing, then keep "starting" every day until that area is done. Then move to the next one.
3. Enlist Help
Some piles are just too much to tackle alone, especially once they've been building for a while. Enlisting help, a family member, a friend, a coworker, changes the whole equation. Two sets of hands make quick work of what feels impossible solo, and having someone to talk to while you work keeps it from feeling like a slog instead of just a chore.
It's a small shift, but it works almost every time I use it. You'll see exactly how this played out for me in the next section.
4. Ask What You're Avoiding
Sometimes clutter isn't about time at all. It's about not quite knowing what to do with something, so you set it aside. Then something else gets set down next to it. Then something else. Before long, it's not one thing anymore, it's a pile, and the pile itself becomes the reason you keep avoiding it.
Our house was built with almost no storage. Not a linen closet, not a coat closet, nowhere to put Christmas decorations. We've added storage over the years, but it's still tight, and that makes "just put it away" harder than it sounds.
We got home from vacation in April, and everything got unloaded, but a few totes and bags ended up sitting out in different corners of the house because putting them away actually meant reorganizing a closet first, not just setting them down. That's a bigger task than it looks like at first glance, and bigger tasks are easy to keep pushing to "later." So a few totes turned into more, and more, until they'd been sitting there for months.
Finally, this last weekend, I hired my son to help me tackle it. I told him I'd pay him thirty dollars for forty five minutes of work, and as a young person who wanted spending money, he was on it. We sorted through everything, found the right spots, and put it all away. And I felt ridiculous for how long it had taken, and so relieved once it was actually done.
Here's the real lesson in that: the clutter wasn't the totes. It was the fact that "putting them away" was quietly a two step job, and I only had bandwidth for step one. Once I named that, it stopped feeling like a personal failing and started feeling like a normal, solvable problem. If something's been sitting for a while, ask yourself what it's actually going to take to deal with it, not just what it looks like it should take. That's usually where the real avoidance is hiding.
Start Small, Start Today
Here's what I keep coming back to. Clutter doesn't announce itself. It never feels like a decision. It's one tote left sitting out, one request you meant to answer, one idea you'll write down later. Then months go by, and the pile has quietly become the thing standing between you and the leader, parent, or person you actually want to be in that moment.
None of the four ideas here are complicated. Write it down. Start with one thing. Ask for help. Name what you're avoiding. You already know how to do every one of them. The only real question is whether you'll do one of them today, or let it become next month's pile instead.
So pick one. Not all four. One. Give it five minutes before you close this tab. Somebody in your life, at work or at home, is waiting on the version of you that isn't buried under everything else. Today's a good day to give it to them.
What's cluttered in your life right now, and who's waiting on the clearer version of you?
As always, carry social kindness with you everywhere you go. The world needs you and your positive mindset!
Connect With Me
If you want to consult on training or coaching for your team, please reach out.
269-621-5282