Latest / Do You F*cking Mind? / FOCUS: Declutter The Mind

Transcript

FOCUS: Declutter The Mind · Do You F*cking Mind?

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: What I want to be talking about is decluttering the mind,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: and a really basic but effective way to do that.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: It helps you tackle what's important. It helps clear your
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: mind on things that you feel that you're not really
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: making progress, like things that you might be thinking again
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: and again and again. It helps ease the stress on
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: things that you fear that you'll forget, or you might
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: have a really good argument about something, but you then
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: get distracted and you think, oh God, what was it
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: that I wanted to argue, And then when it comes
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: to speaking to that person, everything's gone out the window.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: So we're talking about getting all these thoughts and doing
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: something with those thoughts. Okay, now, when you walk, let's
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: talk about physical clutter for a moment. Think about when
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: you walk into a space that is really well organized,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: ideally your own space, because it feels almost like I
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: would say it feels even better. But imagine you walking
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: into your own space where everything is organized, the bed
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: is made, everything's in its right place, and you instantly
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: feel better. This idea of making your bed every morning,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: it's it works. You feel better. There's organization, something is tidy,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: it's not messy, there's no way where your eyes constantly
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: being like, oh, I'm looking at that that it's just
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: more streamlined. The same goes for all your possessions if
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: they're well. One thing is to streamline everything, which I love,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: but even just organized. Everything's tidy, everything has its place.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: It's not scattered. You're not looking at shit everywhere thinking
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: that's supposed to go there, that's there, where's there?
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: I can't find this. It feels good. It not only
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: looks good.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: But everything is organized, it's easy to find, it's easy
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: to access when you want it, and it's not taking
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: up space in your attention when it's not needed. That's
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: the beauty of a de cluttered space and a tidy space.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: What about the mind?
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: I genuinely believe, and after reading a lot of different
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: studies and articles, I feel like a lot of people
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: also agree that the same is true for the mind.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: So this idea of having something that's easy to access
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: and not taking.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Up all your attention when you don't want it, so
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: easy to taxis when you want it, not taking up
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: your attention when you don't want it. You can do
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: that with clutter in the mind. Think about those days
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: where there's just way too much on it feels overwhelming.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: There's too many things to think about, too many things
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: to remember. You've got to be doing this for yourself,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: all these things for other people. You've got your job,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: you've got your life admin. There's so much going on
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: that it gets to a point where you might feel
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: so overwhelmed that you end up doing nothing. I think
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: like we've all been in that position where you end
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: up just sitting there almost paralyzed, being like, I don't
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: know where to start, I don't know what to do.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: There's so much shit on, and it's almost the main
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: time when you procrastinate because.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: It's just overwhelming.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, so when you have a million things to think about,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: you're constantly not only are you stressing about all the
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: shit that you have to do the actual task of
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: doing it, but then you're also stressing about making sure
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: you don't forget.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: So it's this two pronged stress.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: That occurs, and the more stressed you are, the more
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: likely you are to forget something.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: That's just how it is. It's like that thing where you.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Walk into a room and you're like, oh my god,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: I need to restock on that thing. I need to
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: restock on that thing. I can't forget I'm doing that today.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: You leave the house, it's out of your mind. You
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: come back into the house and you're like, oh my god,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: hand soap. I've been telling myself every single day, we
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: need to get hand soap, and I just for the
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: tenth time, don't have hand soap.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: It's the same thing. That's just a scattered mind. It
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: also affects your sleep. Have you ever thought that you.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Have these you know, these spiraling thoughts just before you
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: go to bed, and your mind is racing and it
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: doesn't let you sleep. What I want to get you
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: to start doing is writing things down. And I'm not
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: just talking about to do lists, although that is.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: One of the points.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: I will definitely cover to do lists because they are
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: my absolute favorite. Not only do I love to do this,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: I love writing them down, physically writing it down on
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: paper and crossing it out, not a tick across a line,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: through the sentence. I love to do that. But there's
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: two things I want to talk about writing something down.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Number one, to do lists, the beauty of to do lists.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: And I've got a whole episode on habits and rituals,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: so go and check that one out. But the beauty
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: of to do list is that, yes, it helps you
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: remember everything so you don't have to stress about forgetting something.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: But once you're looking at that list, it helps you
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: prioritize things. It helps you decide what is urgent versus
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: what's important. It helps you decide what absolutely should be done,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: what things will make you happy if you get to it,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: And it means that you don't have to tick everything off,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: but you could dedicate some time in your day to
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: one of those tasks. That's the beauty of a to
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: do list. So I highly recommend that everyone you know
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: start using to do list in a clever way. It's
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: not good enough just to write absolutely everything down. And
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: what I don't recommend is that you start with the easiest,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: shortest task first, which a lot of people do, and
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: I get like I used to be the same.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: I'd start with all the easy Monday, and by the time.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: It gets to doing something creative, all my creative juices
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: have gone out the window. So yeah, it's a balance
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: between doing what's most important to you. And if that's
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: if you're a writer, rite for the first you know,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: thirty minutes of the day, or if you've got a
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: really difficult project, dedicate time to that shit like that,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: then we've got streams of thought. Write down your streams
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: of thought. If you've had a fight with someone, if
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: you've had a disagreement, if you.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: Have a difficult decision to make. This one's huge.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: If you're tossing up between two things, do I take
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: that epic job here or do I go on that
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: trip around the world?
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: And what do I do?
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: I've got this opportunity here, I've got this opportunity there.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: If something is stressing you out, if you've got this
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: deadline and you don't feel prepared, if something's making you sad,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: the simple act of putting pen to paper and spitting
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: out all the thoughts and emotions onto the paper feels
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: like it's a form of therapy. It feels like you're
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: taking it out of your head, even just for the moment,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: and dumping it onto the paper, and you're thinking, it's
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: kind of the act. It's a really good exercise that
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: is used for people with a lot of anxiety around
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: certain topics. It's a way to kind of it's like
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: a metaphor for removing the thoughts from your mind and
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: putting it on the paper, and you're thinking, Look, when
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: I want to visit it, it's right there. I've written
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: everything down, but for now I've just taken it out
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: of my head. And then you leave that paper in
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: a location and you remove yourself from that physical location.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: So if you write it in the kitchen, you then
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: go and sit down in the living room or something
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: like that. So it's this feeling of lifting the weight
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: off you and taking that responsibility out of your mind
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: and putting it somewhere else. It feels good in the
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: moment when you do it, but then when you're writing
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: it down, you're of course you're adding you're putting all
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: your thoughts and feelings, but you're also putting together some
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: arguments like pros and cons and you argue for and
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: against things and any ideas that you might have around
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: that topic. So that way you're not forgetting these potential
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: solutions you've come up with.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: It's all down on the paper.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Then you feel a lot calmer, and you feel a
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: lot It makes it a lot easier to fall asleep
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: when you've done that, because you're not kind of ruminating
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: ruminating ruminating. You've put it down on paper, and that
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: incessant stream of thoughts that never ends gets to pause. Okay,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: it's physically away from you. You've distanced yourself from that thing.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: The act of doing that, when you feel flatter in
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: your head, is going to make you feel more organized.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: So, like I said earlier.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: About physical items, all the physical items are still there.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: You don't even have to I mean, I love a streamline,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: but you don't even have to streamline your items to
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: feel better. Just the simple act of organizing them and
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: tidying it up helps you feel a sense of calm.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: It helps you feel relieved. The same goes for your thoughts.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Instead of your thoughts being this scattered mess in your head,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: you've put them down on paper and you've organized them,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: you've written, you've done a brainstorm, and you thought, all right,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: that's this category, that's this category.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: I'm going to focus on this first.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: That's a priority. This can be done a little bit later.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: I don't have to do it now. This can be
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: decided in a week. It doesn't have to be right now,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: and you start to organize the thoughts. The thoughts all exist,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: The issues that might be happening or the big decisions
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: in your life haven't gone away, but you've created some
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: order to the.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: Chaos that was going on in your head. That is
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: the beauty of it.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: You are organizing something by taking out of your head
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: and putting it in a visual space so you can
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: look at it and organize it, all right. So that
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: is my homework for you today to be taking something
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: out of your head and putting it on paper and
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: start to practice that form of therapy. When you feel
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: that you've got, you know, racing thoughts that you can't
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: you can't calm down, and you can't sleep, or you
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: can't do stressed