Get rid of the information overload that’s got you feeling overwhelmed with these six expert-approved tips to help you achieve mental clarity.
Having a cluttered mind can make your brain feel stuffed full of information, leaving no room for your thoughts to move. It can feel as if you’re in overdrive and stuck at the same time. In a world where we’re inundated with constantly evolving information about everything from our careers to our families, health, and relationships, as well as politics and the news, it’s no wonder so many of us are struggling with mental clutter.
“To understand how to manage a cluttered mind, first we need to acknowledge the sheer volume of information we’re all processing and engaging with on a daily basis,” Los Angeles–based Tantric meditation teacher Hilary Jackendoff tells DailyOM. “It’s more than our minds can keep up with. It can be incredibly overwhelming! It may feel as though you’re under an enormous amount of mental pressure, and it can be hard to find a release valve.”
Understanding Mental Clutter and Why It’s Messing You Up
You may be tempted to chalk up your mental clutter to silly overthinking, but it’s a real medical condition called cognitive overload. The American Psychological Association defines “cognitive overload” as a condition that happens when the demands placed on a person’s mental work exceed their capabilities.
Some common responses to cognitive overload include mental paralysis (being frozen when faced with any sort of decision), anger, and passivity, or going along with whatever someone else decides. Sound familiar?
Jackendoff adds that mental clutter can affect the nervous system: When we’re in a constant heightened state of stress, our bodies can enter fight-or-flight mode. “When you’re in this kind of fear-based stress response, even the smallest thing feels like it’s tied to your survival — because your brain thinks it is,” she says. This can cause us to be reactive and emotionally volatile, and we become more likely to make decisions based on fear.
“Sometimes a cluttered mind can also trigger a feeling of not knowing how to move forward and feeling like everything is too much,” she says. “This can trigger feelings of depression and lead to isolating behaviors.”
Happily, there are solutions. We spoke with Jackendoff and other experts to find tangible solutions to the traffic jam going on in your mind.
Interested in learning more? Check out Guided Relaxation With Ocean Sounds
1. Get It All Out With a Journal
Sometimes your brain is so cluttered that it can feel impossible to get your thoughts straight. That’s when journaling can be super helpful.
A 2001 study from the American Psychological Association found that writing about your thoughts and feelings reduces intrusive thoughts that defocus and clutter your mind. This frees up space for your working memory, which is all of the information you can hold in your brain to use in a single moment. Having a better working memory turns your brain into a more powerful and efficient hard drive — it improves your ability to process what’s going on in the here and now.
Los Angeles–based psychologist Marci Flores, PsyD, says that journaling helps you to understand what you need in a particular moment of your life. “If you’re going through something really big, and it’s really helpful to just get your thoughts out and start exploring it that way, then maybe you do it more often at that point in your life,” she tells DailyOM. “And then as you start to feel a little bit more attuned with yourself, you can start to take a step back and do it less often.”
2. Back Up Your Mind With To-Do Lists
Bullet journaling has a cult following of millions of artists and professionals who swear by its benefits. Why? Because it’s like keeping a long, highly involved to-do list. One study found that writing to-do lists reduces intrusive thoughts and distractions, allowing you to focus on whatever you’ve got going on in the present.
According to a theory called the Zeigarnik effect, this is because our minds like to ruminate on unfinished tasks, and writing these thoughts down gives them a place to exist outside of our heads — like backing up information to the cloud. In turn, this gives us a sense of control and relief, freeing up mental space to feel and focus better.
“Set a day and time when you will review your list of to-dos to prioritize and problem-solve each as needed,” Flores says. “When the thoughts continue to pop up, kindly remind yourself you already have a plan, breathe and release the tension in your body, then continue with what you’re doing in the present moment. The more you practice gently guiding yourself through this redirection, the greater awareness and empowerment you will feel.”
3. Recharge Your Brain by Sleeping More
The benefits of sleep are well documented. Studies show that losing out on sleep can lead to poor memory, reduced cognitive performance, and (of course) being grumpy — all things that exacerbate mental clutter.
“During sleep, we process the day’s events and integrate our experiences so we can start the next day with a clean slate, mentally and emotionally,” Jackendoff says. “We also absorb anything we might have learned during the day.”
To help yourself get better sleep, Jackendoff recommends creating a pre-bedtime, wind-down routine, whether it’s pampering your skin or reading 10 pages of a book. There are also tons of different podcasts and meditation techniques that are geared specifically toward helping you get some shut-eye.
“And it’s worth mentioning, even though we all know it by now, that scrolling on your phone [before bedtime] is one of the worst things you can do for your sleep!” she says.
4. Recenter Your Focus With Meditation
Stop what you’re doing right now, close your eyes, and take three deep breaths. Feel a little better? That’s because you just did a simple meditation exercise.
One large-scale review found that mindfulness meditation programs reduce anxiety, depression, pain, and stress. Another study found that meditation lengthens attention span. And, according to Jackendoff, meditating can be a useful tool for clearing your mind and recentering your focus.
Research shows that meditation increases thickness in your prefrontal cortex and may fight thinning as you age. And as your prefrontal cortex is responsible for decision making, this “enhances your ability to make good decisions and discern what information you actually need to engage with on a daily basis,” Jackendoff says.
Science also shows that meditation may slow the deterioration of gray matter, which is involved in essential brain functions like decision making, memory, emotions, and self-control.
Importantly, meditation helps to direct your thoughts away from whatever you’re ruminating on and into the present moment. “Meditation teaches you how to shift your attention out of your thinking mind and get grounded in your physical body,” Jackendoff says. “You’ll learn how to witness your thoughts and mental patterns with objectivity, rather than being ruled by the fluctuations of your mind.”
To alleviate cognitive overload, Jackendoff recommends trying guided meditation practices. Yoga nidra, a stress-relieving form of yoga that involves lying on your back and chilling out, for example, could be a good way to start. Spending time in nature, such as by practicing forest bathing or even taking a walk, also offers powerful meditative benefits.
5. Slow It Down by Doing One Task at a Time
You may be one of those people who prides themselves in their ability to multitask, but if you’re experiencing mental clutter, you might want to slow down. Paris-based neuroscientists discovered that multitasking may not be as efficient a way to get things done as you thought. Why? Because it literally divides your brain in two.
Whereas focusing on one task activates your entire brain, focusing on two tasks at once splits your brain by the hemisphere. And when the researchers added a third task to the mix, they found that their study participants often forgot tasks and made three times as many errors.
“Sometimes, multitasking is necessary and unavoidable, and fortunately we can manage it,” Etienne Koechlin, PhD, director of the Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience Laboratory in the National Institute of Health and Medical Research at École Normale Supérieure in Paris and one of the study’s authors, tells DailyOM. “However, as far as possible, we should avoid it. When we switch away from one task to another, the brain maintains a simplified, coarse representation of the task on hold, which can therefore degrade its richness.” In summary, trying to do too many complex tasks at once overwhelms your brain.
Multitasking “may lead to feeling a lack of control of what is going on and induce harmful stress, if it occurs repeatedly,” also known as burn-out syndrome, Koechlin says.
It’s important to note that there’s some debate on the impact of multitasking. One large-scale study found that engaging with the constant distractions of Instagram, TikTok, and the like didn’t impair subjects’ ability to perform. By contrast, another study concluded that media multitaskers reported mind-wandering and difficulties in paying attention.
If you’re playing your favorite album while reading this article, you may be wondering if listening to music while working counts as multitasking. Research suggests that music can improve your mood, resulting in better performance. However, other studies have shown that listening to music can impact your working memory, especially if it’s loud, is too upbeat, and has lyrics. This is all to say that if you’re going to listen to music while working, make it something you like, but try to avoid anything that you know will be distracting.
6. Put Your Phone Out of Sight
Not having your phone on hand can sometimes be panic inducing, but research suggests that the mere presence of your phone might be contributing to your mental clutter. It’s like a magnet tugging on your working memory: Even when you think it’s not distracting you, some part of your brain is always focused on it.
Jackendoff says that by using our free moments to check our phones, we’re not giving our brains a break; in fact, we’re unintentionally taking on more unnecessary information. “We push ourselves far beyond our mental limits and spend our valuable free time consuming extraneous information via social media, the news, and the endless rabbit holes of the internet,” she says. “No judgment — I get it. Social media is, by design, addictive — and the world is a fascinating place. There’s so much happening in the world, there’s so much to learn — and there are so many hilarious dog videos to watch.”
When Jackendoff says we’re addicted to our smartphones, she means it literally. According to one study, 54 percent of teens say they spend too much time on their phones. This is because phone addiction is just like any other: Checking our phone releases dopamine, our brain’s feel-good hormone, which makes us keep going back for more.
Jackendoff’s solution is to find a healthier source of dopamine, one that doesn’t increase loneliness and mental distress, and is less likely to overwhelm our brains with information. Again, yoga is a great option. Yoga nidra “releases a significant amount of dopamine in your brain, so you don’t feel that compulsion to get your dopamine hit from social media. Plus, it decreases blood pressure, reduces physical tension, improves sleep, strengthens the mind-body connection, and helps you maintain focus and energy throughout the day,” she says. “Basically, it addresses all of the pain points most people are experiencing on a daily basis.”
It’s a hectic world we live in, so it takes practice and work to step back and give yourself time to calm and center your thoughts — but the results to your mood, focus, and more will make it worth the effort.
