Clutter and Stress: A Path to Productivity

Clutter & Focus: Why a Messy Space Kills Productivity | What to Do Instead

Feeling scattered before you even start your day?  

In this episode of More Than Anxiety, we dive deep into how physical and digital clutter silently sabotages your focus, slows productivity, and leaves you feeling overwhelmed. 

I'll break down why common fixes don't work and reveal actionable steps to reclaim your space, mind, and sense of calm. 

Learn how to clear the mental noise, build simple systems, and boost your energy so you can get more done, enjoy your work, and live with less stress. 

If you're ready to move from chaos to clarity, this episode is for you.

Key Takeaways:

• Understand the psychological impact of clutter on stress and focus.
• Discover why "rage-cleaning" and other quick fixes fall short.
• Get simple, manageable steps to start decluttering your environment and mind.
• Learn how coaching can help you uncover patterns and build lasting habits for a distraction-free life.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to More Than Anxiety
• 1:42 How Clutter Steals Your Focus
• 3:54 The Science Behind Clutter and Stress
• 6:47 Simple Steps to Declutter Effectively
• 10:18 Benefits of a Clutter-Free Environment
• 15:22 Challenge and Next Steps

Transcript

Hey, have you ever sat down to work, you've got your coffee, you're ready to knock out that to-do list, but before you even open your computer, your brain just freaks out and you're already scattered? Not because the work is hard or because you don't want to do it, but because all you can see is the clutter around you. Paper's piled up, maybe if you work from home, there's laundry in the corner, there's dishes in the sink, or just things that you needed to do. 

Suddenly, you're so distracted and frustrated that you just give up before you've even started. If that sounds familiar, yeah, me too. It happens sometimes. Here's the truth. Clutter isn't just a mess in your space. It's also a distraction that steals your focus. It slows down your productivity and it leaves you feeling behind before you even start. And while there's a lot of people out there trying to just push through, they put on the noise canceling headphones or maybe you turn on the ambient music on YouTube like I do,

Maybe you take a quick walk or you get up and rage clean. That doesn't fix anything. You're still stuck with the clutter when you get done. So today, we're gonna break down why clutter is really working against you and your goals, why those fixes that you try don't actually work, and what you can do to focus, to be more productive, and to feel calm so that you can finish this year feeling really proud of yourself and having the success that you want.

And so by the end of this episode, you'll have simple steps to start clearing your space and your mind so you get more done and actually enjoy doing what it is that you do. If we've not met before, my name is Megan. I am a coach. I help successful, motivated people clear out their minds, clear the anxiety and stress from their bodies so that they can feel confident, calm, and have the success that they've been working so hard for. Let's start by talking about clutter.

It's not just gross things laying around, stacks of paper or things that you know that you need to do. It is a major distraction. When you have piles of stuff, Your brain has to constantly filter out all of that noise. It's quiet noise, but it's still there. It's stealing your attention. That noise or that clutter eats up so much of the bandwidth in your brain for the things that you actually want to do that

You can't get anything done. It's stealing your focus. A lot of people try to cope by meditating. They put in their AirPods and they put them on quiet. They have a playlist. They get up and they move when they're trying to work. That's actually a good one. Maybe they try to de-stress. They take a walk. They put their phone away. Social media breaks are amazing. They grab a snack. Or they rage clean. 

They just get furious and like throw a fit, slam the computer shut and take off. Or maybe they procrastinate entirely like, screw it, I'm not doing any of this today. This is pretty normal guys. And if you've done it, I have too. All of these things fail though, because what's really the problem, the root cause is that there's so many distractions in the physical environment that your brain can't refocus. It's still drawn to what's laying around.

You cannot force your brain to be clear in a cluttered space and then expect that focus to magically show up. It just doesn't work. And there's statistics to prove this. There was a study of 290 US adults that shows higher levels of office clutter or clutter in the home were significantly associated with increased emotional exhaustion and stress. That's pretty impressive. So a one unit increase of perceived clutter, just what you think is clutter, corresponded to an increase in stress. So if something feels cluttered to you, not to the other people in your

If there's a stack of mail and it's driving you crazy, it will increase your stress. It might not bother somebody else. But what I know and what you need to know is that when you're stressed, it makes it more difficult to think or to focus. And the longer that you're stressed, the more likely you are to become anxious. And we know that when your body feels anxious, the rational thinking part of your brain that's able to choose what to do, to think creatively, doesn't work. You slip into fight or flight, even if it's low level fight or flight, and it makes it even more difficult. 

So before you get to that point, we have to have a way to not just help you be more productive, to lower your stress levels at work and at home so that your mind, your body, and your space are all clear and calm. And when you can do that, everything changes because you're magically more creative and more productive and you're calm. You're not rushing through your work. So you make fewer mistakes. So let's talk about what clutter is doing to you. Just notice how you feel the next time you're in a situation when there's clutter around you. 

Notice specifically how your body feels or maybe the frustration, that feeling that you're behind, you need to get caught up, or maybe suddenly you're grabbing your phone or you're walking over to empty the dishwasher or you're going down to get another, drink out of the drinking fountain, whatever it is that you do. Just notice how everything takes longer and you bounce back and forth between tasks instead of sticking to something and getting it finished because your focus is everywhere because there's stuff everywhere. 

So what I want you to do is to really pay attention to how you feel. The next thing I want you to do is stop expecting everything to be perfect. Our expectations make clutter feel overwhelming. When you can change just something simple in your environment in a way that's manageable and simple, everything starts to fall into place easily. So let's talk about some action steps that can make that happen for you without having to gut your entire house and rearrange your entire day. The first thing I want you to do is to choose one area, one spot to declutter first. Not everything in your office, not everything in your house, just one spot. Maybe it's your desk. Maybe it's the drawer that makes you psychotic every time you open it.

Maybe it's your bedside table. You can't fall asleep because your brain won't shut off. Maybe it's your email inbox or the desktop on your computer. One spot is plenty. Choose that. And what I want you to do is to clear all the visible distractions from that space. Anything and everything that doesn't belong there or that doesn't serve the task that you're trying to complete. If it's a stack of papers or mail, put it away.

If it's laundry, take it, fold it, get it out of your sight and be done with it. You're done. That's it. That was the one thing. If you're not sure how you're going to stop, because some people are like, yes, but once I start, I feel like I have to keep going. I want you to set a short timer. Between 5 and 15 minutes is plenty. When you do that, just say, 

OK, when this goes off, I'm done. I'm going to go back to work. That's going to have you refocused and saying, OK, I did something and now I get to go back what I was doing. If you want to make this start to be a habit, you can set that short session up every single day on your phone so that when that alarm goes off, you know you've got between five and 15 minutes whether it's in the morning, the afternoon or the evening, where you're going to focus on decluttering a space, a space, not all the spaces, right? And the next thing I want you to do is really celebrate when you win.

Every time you clear something out, give yourself some dopamine. Celebrate it. Maybe that means you're gonna dance in your kitchen. Maybe that means that you are going to take a little photo and post it on Instagram and be like, check out what I just did. I cleaned my house. I'm good, it looks over there. Look how nice my table is. I couldn't even see the table an hour ago. What you wanna do is just tell yourself, hey, I'm doing a good job, I did that.

It gives your brain some dopamine and it helps you refocus on the task that you were working on. Another thing that you can do is start building these microsystems or habits. So for example, at the end of the day, you reset your desk because you know before you leave to go home from work, you're going to clear the papers off or put them in neat stacks or put your pencils in the cup, whatever it is that you do. You do that every day and you say, I can't leave until this is done.

Another thing might be creating a Sunday ritual where you go through your email inbox and you clear out everything that's junk or spam. You just get rid of it. Or maybe you go through and you clear the notifications off of your social media. If those red dots drive you as crazy as they drive me crazy, get those out of there. You could choose a day once a week where you're like, on Sundays, I just clear out my notifications or my email inbox. 

Maybe you have a specific day where you know that you're going to go through and you're going to make sure that the kitchen counters are completely clear. You start your week every week with this process. Whatever it is that distracts you, this isn't about what someone else's clutter is. Remember, clutter is clutter to you. It doesn't matter what anybody else thinks about it. So as a coach, I help people not just clean through the anxious or untrue thoughts that are in their heads, but I also help them find the habits or the beliefs or the patterns that allow that clutter to build up over time. 

Things like procrastination or feeling shameful about not wanting something that's been sitting on their counter forever. Do you know this thing where somebody gave you a gift and it's been sitting on your counter because you feel like you're supposed to have it there, but every time you look at it, you kind of want to like curl on a ball and hide because you just can't stand it? There's a lot of shame attached sometimes with getting rid of things. 

We can talk about that and what it's like to be able to say, hey, this thing has to go. It's driving me mad. You might also have this idea of like, I don't have time. I'll get to it when I do. We can find the time to say, hey, let's create this space where you actually feel like you do have the time and you do have the presence to be able to live in an environment and work in an environment that feels productive and good and exciting to you. And then there's the whole perfectionism thing and overwhelm because clutter can be very overwhelming about you but it makes me super angry and bitey and grouchy and I don't get anything done if there's too much junk laying around. 

And a lot of times guys I work from home. My kitchen counters can be a big disaster and I will have a day where I can't get anything done until I get up and just clear up these dumb little piles that are sitting around. I know it's silly but that kind of stuff drives me crazy and I bet it does for some of you too.

So what I do is I just support you in helping building consistency so that clearing the clutter becomes a strategy, not a freak out session, and that you don't have to avoid it anymore.

When there's accountability, when there's structure, when you have a mindset shift, it gets you to a place where you can stop getting stuck and you start noticing how you can make progress. Even when there's a big mess, even when things, maybe you had a party and you have to clear it all up and you're just like, this is beyond clutter, this is a disaster. That's okay. We can talk about how to create a space that allows you to get back on track. Because when you clear your environment and your mind and the process,

Here's what your life looks like once it becomes a habit, you notice that you're a lot more focused and productive. I used to wonder for a while, I actually did a podcast episode about this a while back about ADHD. Was it ADHD? Was it anxiety? Was it perimenopause? Was it just like whatever was going on? And my daughter brought me downstairs. She's like, mom, I have a solution for you. Try this.

She turned on ambient music on YouTube. We cleaned my entire desk up and it really wasn't even that dirty. I just had so many things that I was behind on because I hadn't focused in so long that we got all of the projects in order. We turned on the ambient music. I've been good to go ever since. That has been great for me. And I created this new routine where I'm only moving the things upstairs to work when I'm working upstairs and everything else stays out of my line of sight. My desk is clean.

My files are organized and put away. I still love the ambient music, just not when I'm recording a podcast. But it allows you to be distraction-free. And you start creating that as a system instead of having to try to do it every single day. So you're more focused and you're more productive on a daily basis. Another thing you'll notice when you start decluttering regularly is that you feel less overwhelmed and you're not as mentally exhausted.

There's less noise in your mind and in your environment, so you don't feel exhausted because all of those things that are pulling your attention away take decision-making processes to get through them. And your brain already makes so many decisions in a day that it's why you can't do things like figure out what to make for dinner. Clutter makes it harder to figure out what to make for dinner, which seems crazy, doesn't it? You have better energy and more momentum.

All of these little small wins start to build your confidence that like, wait a second, I actually do, I actually can focus. Now, please know that if you have actual diagnosed ADHD, I'm not talking about you right now, right? Please don't come at me in the comments and say, yes, but Megan, you're not, you don't think you understand ADHD. I do, I'm not talking about ADHD right now. I'm talking about clutter distracting you, because there's definitely a difference, right? And you guys understand that because ADHD is real.

What I'm talking about is the clutter that's distracting people who don't necessarily have ADHD, who have trouble focusing because of all of the other things that are pulling their attention and their mental energy away. So all of those small wins start building your confidence, and that creates even more wins. Like you're like, wait a second. I know exactly how I can create a system to get rid of this other thing that's driving me crazy. Another thing that happens is when you don't have that clutter there,

Remember when I mentioned the bedside table? You start to sleep better. You're not overthinking as much in bed. So you have better rest, better thinking during the day. And when your environment feels easier, your mind can quiet down too. You sleep better. You make better, faster decisions. And the one thing that I know that so many people are looking for that feels really hard to get sometime is more presence and enjoyment.

You can enjoy your work more, your time at home more, your downtime more because you're not rage cleaning or running around. You're not feeling behind or frazzled. So here's what I really want you to take away today. Clutter isn't just about that stack of mail or the laundry. It's about mess. It's about energy. It's about focus. It's about the way that your brain processes the world around you. You don't have to keep like wondering if you're ever gonna get caught up.

You don't have to clean all of the house at once. You don't have to avoid the mess and feel worse, none of that. You just need one small on purpose step at a time and to celebrate along the way so that your brain gets all of those happy chemicals. Because when you do that, you're gonna notice more than just a clean desk or a clean countertop. You're gonna notice more that your energy goes up. You'll notice that your energy goes up. Your focus sharpens.

Your stress goes down. You actually have more bandwidth for the people who you love. You're not snapping on people. You're not ignoring people. You're not just so frustrated that you can't, you're like, I just can't deal with anyone else today. And you start being successful with the goals that you wanna achieve, whether it's now or before the end of the year or before next year at this time. 

You start spending time with the people that you love and you're actually able to just sit there and really hang out with your kids or your spouse or your partner or your best friend or whoever else it is that you want to spend time with without feeling like you're being pulled in a million different directions. So here's my challenge for you this week. Pick one spot. Maybe it's a pile of mail. Maybe it's a to-do list on your desk. Maybe it's your calendar or your email inbox and clear it. And then notice how you feel after you get that done. 

Then I want you to send me a message or share in the comments because I would love to cheer for you and to hear what changed. And if you're ready to go deeper, not just to clear clutter, but to build systems and habits that free you from all of that distraction and to create routines that work so that you create momentum and confidence, let's talk. Because coaching is where we discover the patterns that keep you stuck. And I'm gonna help you create a sustainable strategy so that you can focus on growth without burning out. I hope that sounds amazing because it is so much fun to...

Coaching is where we start to uncover the patterns that keep you stuck. I'll help you create sustainable strategies so that you can focus on growth without burning out. So thank you for listening to this episode of More Than Anxiety. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review if this helped you and share this episode with somebody else who is drowning in clutter who needs a little bit of clarity. Until next time, here's to less mess, more focus and the kind of calm that fuels your success instead of keeping you wishing and stressing.

I'll talk to you again soon.