Latest / Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing / #168| 3 Reasons Your Clutter Is Hurting Your Productivity & Causing Overwhelm —and How to Regain Control
Transcript
- 0:01Michelle Gauthier: Do you ever sit down at your desk to get to work, but then your desk is cluttered and you end up just scrolling on your phone?
- 0:07Michelle Gauthier: Instead, you're listening to Overwhelmed Working Woman, the podcast that helps you be more calm and more productive by doing less.
- 0:20Michelle Gauthier: I'm your host, Michelle Gauthier, a former Overwhelmed Working Woman and current life coach.
- 0:25Michelle Gauthier: On this show, we unpack the stress and pressure that today's working woman experiences and in each episode you'll get a strategy to bring more calm, ease and relaxation to your life.
- 0:40Michelle Gauthier: Hi, friend, I just sat down to record this podcast and it's late afternoon, and what late afternoon means for me is that my desk is usually pretty messy Throughout the day.
- 0:51Michelle Gauthier: I get food, I get snacks I always have about six cups on here by the time the day is finished A couple wrappers, pens, etc.
- 1:00Michelle Gauthier: All over my desk.
- 1:01Michelle Gauthier: And I sat down to record this episode and I thought, oh, how ironic that I'm talking about decluttering and how it has a mental toll, even though it's a physical thing.
- 1:11Michelle Gauthier: So I did set a short alarm and spent two minutes decluttering my desk and I feel a whole lot better and a whole lot clearer.
- 1:20Michelle Gauthier: So when you listen, today we're going to dive into why clutter is overwhelming and why that impacts your productivity.
- 1:26Michelle Gauthier: That example I gave it's just the very beginning of the episode where you sit down at your desk and it's cluttered so you scroll on your phone instead.
- 1:34Michelle Gauthier: That tanks your productivity.
- 1:37Michelle Gauthier: Or you walk into your kitchen and you're thinking about cooking dinner and you're like let's just order takeout.
- 1:43Michelle Gauthier: No thanks, I don't want to be here.
- 1:45Michelle Gauthier: So in this episode you'll learn the science behind why clutter causes stress and how it's affecting your productivity it's not in a good way, I'll tell you that for sure and some small but powerful ways to take back your space and your peace.
- 1:59Michelle Gauthier: So let's talk first about the science behind clutter and overwhelm and how those two are connected, and I think we could say overwhelm or stress or even anxiety for some people.
- 2:11Michelle Gauthier: So let's start by talking about why clutter feels so heavy.
- 2:15Michelle Gauthier: When your space is messy, your brain has to work overtime.
- 2:18Michelle Gauthier: Even if it's unconscious and you don't realize it, visual clutter competes for your attention.
- 2:24Michelle Gauthier: So I gave you an example at the beginning that my desk has all this stuff all over it.
- 2:28Michelle Gauthier: When I sit down and it's like everything in your space is silently saying look at me.
- 2:33Michelle Gauthier: There's just so many places for your eyes to look and for your attention to go, and this is just a waste of your brain power.
- 2:39Michelle Gauthier: It just leads to more mental fatigue and less focus.
- 2:42Michelle Gauthier: And I know for sure, as overwhelmed working women.
- 2:45Michelle Gauthier: We do not need any more mental fatigue or any more decisions or processing to happen in our brains.
- 2:51Michelle Gauthier: Research even backs that clutter increases your cortisol, which is your stress hormone.
- 2:56Michelle Gauthier: So all those little decisions where to put this, what to do with that, even just the thoughts of I can't believe this is such a mess.
- 3:04Michelle Gauthier: I need to clean this up they just all add up to decision fatigue.
- 3:08Michelle Gauthier: And here's what I know is true for me.
- 3:10Michelle Gauthier: I think this is varying degrees by person, but I think clutter really affects everyone in some way.
- 3:15Michelle Gauthier: But when I sleep in a messy room, I wake up and I already feel behind.
- 3:20Michelle Gauthier: But when I clear off my bathroom counter at night and lay out my workout clothes clothes and I wake up and my room is clean I feel completely calm.
- 3:29Michelle Gauthier: It's that simple.
- 3:30Michelle Gauthier: Same with my desk when I get to work and my desk is already cleaned off.
- 3:35Michelle Gauthier: And it's not just about the physical stuff.
- 3:37Michelle Gauthier: The mental clutter and the physical clutter are totally linked.
- 3:40Michelle Gauthier: Your environment influences your thoughts.
- 3:43Michelle Gauthier: A cluttered kitchen makes it harder to cook.
- 3:46Michelle Gauthier: A cluttered schedule makes it harder to think clearly.
- 3:48Michelle Gauthier: It all is linked and it affects the way that you're thinking and therefore how productive you can be.
- 3:54Michelle Gauthier: Let's talk about the hidden ways that clutter hurts your productivity.
- 3:59Michelle Gauthier: We just talked about this a little bit in point one.
- 4:02Michelle Gauthier: It creates this mental noise, so more distractions means less focus.
- 4:06Michelle Gauthier: I read this quote that said trying to work at a cluttered desk is like trying to meditate in the middle of a parade.
- 4:12Michelle Gauthier: And it made me remember a funny story that one time I did.
- 4:15Michelle Gauthier: I was with my kid, my sister and I had taken our kids on a trip, so it was just us, two adults, and then four kids, and the kids were all in the TV room and they were like playing a game and being loud and I really wanted to meditate, but I didn't feel like getting up.
- 4:29Michelle Gauthier: So I said, hey, I'm going to meditate.
- 4:31Michelle Gauthier: And right in the middle of this parade, so to speak, I decided I was going to try to meditate and I did, and I tried and I eventually got to the point where I was really focused on my meditation, but it took so much longer than it would have taken if I just went into a quiet bedroom and shut the door and just did a 10 minute meditation.
- 4:51Michelle Gauthier: So I think that is a perfect example of it's not that you can't work at a desk that is full of stuff.
- 4:58Michelle Gauthier: It just takes more time and effort for you to focus.
- 5:01Michelle Gauthier: And then every time you get up go get a glass of water, you come back, you come back to that cluttered desk.
- 5:06Michelle Gauthier: You have to again readjust and just waste your mental capacity readjusting to.
- 5:10Michelle Gauthier: I have to focus even though it's a mess here.
- 5:14Michelle Gauthier: The other way that it affects your productivity when there's clutter is that it leads to avoidance and procrastination.
- 5:20Michelle Gauthier: Too much stuff makes everything feel overwhelming.
- 5:23Michelle Gauthier: Back to the example about the kitchen.
- 5:25Michelle Gauthier: So if you walk into the kitchen and it's messy, what are the chances that you're going to actually cook?
- 5:30Michelle Gauthier: Just going to lead to avoidance or procrastination, right.
- 5:35Michelle Gauthier: And another thing that I notice is when a room is clean and cozy, everyone wants to be in there.
- 5:42Michelle Gauthier: No one goes into the cluttery rooms.
- 5:44Michelle Gauthier: Nobody wants to be there.
- 5:45Michelle Gauthier: That's not a coincidence.
- 5:46Michelle Gauthier: I think we just gravitate towards organized and calm.
- 5:50Michelle Gauthier: And the last way that clutter can just steal your productivity is it takes your time and your energy because you waste time looking for things that you already own or buy duplicates because you didn't realize you had one buried in a drawer somewhere.
- 6:05Michelle Gauthier: Cluttered spaces are usually full of tiny unfinished projects and those are just quietly whispering to us.
- 6:12Michelle Gauthier: Look what you haven't done.
- 6:13Michelle Gauthier: You're behind.
- 6:13Michelle Gauthier: You still need to do this, and that takes a toll on our mental and emotional energy.
- 6:18Michelle Gauthier: So, even though I know you're busy, here are a couple ways that you can regain control, have less clutter and therefore have better productivity.
- 6:28Michelle Gauthier: You don't have to do a full weekend long overhaul and if you're like, yes, I actually do, maybe you have enough clutter that you need to do that, but what I want to encourage you to do is just start small.
- 6:39Michelle Gauthier: So here are a couple of small but mighty things you can start with.
- 6:44Michelle Gauthier: Number one is pick a really high impact area.
- 6:46Michelle Gauthier: So ask yourself the question what small space would make a total difference if it was clear and clutter free, like your purse or your desk or your email inbox, or we have this area.
- 7:01Michelle Gauthier: When you walk into our house.
- 7:02Michelle Gauthier: That's kind of like you come in the garage door and there's just kind of a little landing area where we end up having, like backpacks and shoes and all that stuff, and every time you walk in the house you see it.
- 7:13Michelle Gauthier: So it's a really high impact area.
- 7:15Michelle Gauthier: So think about what that is for you and start with that area.
- 7:19Michelle Gauthier: Just make one little space clean and then another approach you can take is setting a declutter timer.
- 7:26Michelle Gauthier: One of my clients decluttered her entire office in five minute chunks during her breaks and it completely changed how she felt about work.
- 7:35Michelle Gauthier: I don't remember how many sessions of five minutes it took, but she just consistently would work on it for five minutes and you just make a little bit of progress, and you know a little bit of progress always encourages more and makes you feel so much better.
- 7:48Michelle Gauthier: Another quick thing to do is use the one minute rule.
- 7:51Michelle Gauthier: So if something takes less than 60 seconds to put away, just do it right now.
- 7:55Michelle Gauthier: This is something.
- 7:57Michelle Gauthier: This is my downfall right here.
- 7:59Michelle Gauthier: If I take something out, I'm terrible at remembering to put it away.
- 8:02Michelle Gauthier: So if I can focus on this and just put things away right away, and even if something like when I just decluttered my desk, like I told you I did there were a pair of earrings on my desk those go in my bedroom it took me less than 60 seconds to walk them in there and set them in my jewelry box.
- 8:20Michelle Gauthier: So if you can use that one minute rule, you'll find yourself putting things back away much more consistently.
- 8:24Michelle Gauthier: Okay, so here's what we covered today.
- 8:25Michelle Gauthier: Clutter creates stress by overloading your brain and your body.
- 8:29Michelle Gauthier: When that happens, it takes your productivity down because it causes distractions and procrastination and mental drain.
- 8:36Michelle Gauthier: And here's the good news you can start regaining control with small, simple steps.
- 8:42Michelle Gauthier: So the three that I suggested were starting with a high impact area, setting a declutter timer and using that one minute rule to put stuff back.
- 8:49Michelle Gauthier: So pick your one small area and declutter it today and see what a difference it makes in your life.
- 8:56Michelle Gauthier: If decluttering is a big source of overwhelm in your life.
- 9:01Michelle Gauthier: There are a couple other episodes that you can listen to that have more information about them.
- 9:06Michelle Gauthier: There's episode 117, episode 77, and episode 8.
- 9:10Michelle Gauthier: Episode 8 specifically has a printable decluttering guide that you can grab, so we will link that in the episode as well, to go back and listen to episode 8 and then get the free guide that goes along with it.
- 9:23Michelle Gauthier: Okay, thank you so much and have a great week.
- 9:26Michelle Gauthier: If you found this episode helpful, would you please be so kind to leave a review, either on Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen, every time you leave.
- 9:34Michelle Gauthier: A rating rating is where you just click the stars.
- 9:36Michelle Gauthier: It takes like literal one second, or review, which probably takes more, like two minutes, because then you do the stars and you write your review.
- 9:44Michelle Gauthier: It makes a big difference to where the podcast is shown and how we get ranked and more people see it and hopefully can feel less overwhelmed.
- 9:52Michelle Gauthier: All right, have a great week.
- 9:54Michelle Gauthier: See you soon.
- 9:55Michelle Gauthier: Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast.
- 10:03Michelle Gauthier: If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at michellegauthier.
- 10:07Michelle Gauthier: com.
- 10:09Michelle Gauthier: See you next week.