Clear the Mind Clutter and Move On

It doesn’t matter how diligent, organized, or dedicated to your writing career you are; you are going to have those mental clutter days occur. It’s simply unavoidable. But that doesn’t mean you have to be stopped dead in your tracks when they happen. Here are some things that you can do to clear your mind and do a mental detox to help get you back on track and writing again.

             Daily life doesn’t stop because you have a deadline to meet. The dogs will still bark, and kids, husbands, and bosses will still have needs that require your attention. The bills still have to be paid on time, and that laundry and those dishes aren’t going to do themselves. All of these things, along with an innumerable number of other distractions, cause the mind to clutter and lose focus as we try to balance professional and home life. At times, it can all seem overwhelming, making it difficult to focus and slowing the creative process. When this happens, it’s time to take a step back and reboot.

·       Step Away from the Keyboard – That’s right. I said step away. When mental clutter takes hold, sitting and attempting to force through the writing process may help with writer’s block at times. But, with mental clutter, it only intensifies the problem, and the work being completed suffers in quality, quantity, and slows to a crawl. So, walk away. Take a moment for yourself, whether it’s taking the dogs for a walk, spending a few minutes playing with the kids, doing that laundry that’s not getting done, cleaning house, or running a few of those errands on your to-do list. It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as it gives you the time you need for your thoughts to reorganize and your subconscious to relax.

·       Get Organized and Make a Game Plan – Figure out what has your mind jumping around like a monkey on a trampoline, and jot it all down. Get it out of your head and onto paper so that you have a clear visual of what needs to be done. Making a to-do list or a checklist of what needs to be done provides you with the opportunity to prioritize versus simply attempting to remember everything that needs to be completed. The visual reminds you of how much you do regularly, and where possible, allows you to delegate those tasks that could be done by someone else, taking some of the weight off your shoulders. The act of checking off a completed task is a mental refresher. It provides a sense of accomplishment that is often missed when rushing from one task to the next.

·       Accept Your Thoughts – Accept that sometimes you just can’t control your thoughts. Everyone wants to believe they are in complete control of their minds and actions. But the reality is our thoughts often happen at random, especially when stress is part of the equation. Stop battling your mind and accept that these thoughts happen. This doesn’t mean that you have to accept the thought itself, just that you have to allow the thought process to happen and work through each thought as it arises. Doing this short-circuits the tunnel vision and looping process, allowing you to move past the intrusive thoughts and get things done.

·       Allow Yourself to Feel How you Feel – When you wake up grumpy or unmotivated, don’t beat yourself up. When those unproductive days happen, take stock in the little things that were accomplished. Too often, the first response is to critique ourselves versus understanding that we are human and sometimes things will not get done at the pace we planned. Permit yourself to have grumpy days, to feel unmotivated, or to acknowledge that you are human and life does affect you. Then move on. Don’t get stuck in this mood or phase of productivity. Accept how you feel, give yourself permission to feel that way, and then do something that you enjoy to make yourself feel better. Focusing on your feelings, needs, and then doing something to comfort yourself opens you back up to getting back to what needs to be done and facing the world again.

·       Set Realistic Goals and Timelines – Deadlines are a necessary evil of the writing profession. Taking control of your deadlines, setting realistic, reachable goals to complete projects, and communicating these to others avoids double booking yourself, overstretching, and the stress of missed deadlines. It’s easy to let others dictate your deadlines with their own needs and desires. However, you are the one doing the work. You are the one who understands best what is required to complete the project in a professional, finished manner, and you are the one who knows how long it takes to do these tasks. So, if a deadline is being forced upon you, take a minute to communicate in a professional, detailed manner why the deadline being asked is unreachable and provide them with a realistic finish by date that you are willing to commit to. If they are not willing to budge, then say thank you for the opportunity and walk away. Forced deadlines are not conducive to either the customer or the writer, as they end in unhappy clients, stressed-out writers, unfinished

work, and late projects. If the client accepts your proposed deadline, make sure you meet it.

·       Keep a Calendar – Put everything on your calendar, whether you use a digital or paper calendar. Include both home life, personal responsibilities, and professional obligations on the same calendar. This minimizes forgetting to do things, missing deadlines, and overbooking yourself. Having a complete calendar gives you a visual of your schedule when estimating deadlines for potential project contracts and future commitments. It provides a tracking record to trace your steps and reflect on past projects. And, it frees your mind of the clutter of trying to remember and organize it all.

·       Keep a Journal or Notebook Handy – Daily life is not the only thing that leads to a cluttered mind. Creativity comes with its own clutter. Whether you’re working on one large project, such as a novel or website, or you are working on multiple projects at once, the mind will often jump from one idea to the next and back again. Keeping track of these ideas is easier when you write them down. It helps the mind focus on the project at hand and provides written backup of those ideas that need to be temporarily put on hold while you complete the current task. How you keep these notes is up to you. You can sort them by project, or list them in chronological order as they arrive. Or create an organizational system of your own. What matters is getting them out of your head and putting them somewhere that you can easily locate them again when you’re ready to focus on them.

A cluttered mind is going to happen from time to time. That’s just part of life and doesn’t matter what profession you are in. However, as a writer, it will negatively affect your productivity and quality of work if you don’t find tools to manage that mind clutter. These are just a few of the techniques and tools used to work through the mind clutter that blocks creativity. Some of them may sound a bit philosophical, or hokey if you will, and may not be your cup of tea, but in reality, they work when given a chance. That doesn’t mean you have to try everything mentioned; it simply provides you with options and a starting point for working through your own mental clutter the next time you find yourself overwhelmed, blocked, or just unable to focus.