Declutter Your Mind For Productivity, Clarity, Focus and Peace of Mind
We ARE supercomputers. Just like computers, we also need to make space for more storage and for faster processing. Also, just like computers, we need files to keep things organized, or things will get lost or difficult to find. Eventually, it slows down your computer/brain.
It depletes your battery faster, and it charges slower because of all the things lingering in the back of your mind. And just like having a bunch of tabs open that you “forget” about or don’t even know what they were for, it’s the same with our brain; we don’t forget. Our brain is terrible at reminding us of deadlines or plans, but it doesn’t forget. It lingers in the back of your mind, draining your brain power, and then, for “some” reason, you feel tired, overwhelmed, and anxious all the time, and you don’t know why.
It’s your brain trying to make sense of what to do with that information. It’s an open loop that has no real action. It’s just there, nagging you and draining your mental, emotional and physical power. It’s waiting for clarity and begging for your attention.
When you try to use your brain as a storage system, it stays in a low-grade state of stress—constantly scanning, “Don’t forget this, don’t forget that.”
Capturing is about emptying your mind completely into a trusted external system.
What You’re Supposed to Capture
You capture everything that has your attention, including:
- Tasks you need to do
- Ideas you don’t want to lose
- Commitments you’ve made (to others or yourself)
- Worries, open loops, “someday” thoughts
- Stuff you’re not sure about yet
If it’s tugging at your attention—even vaguely—it goes into the system.
Why This Creates Mental Space
Your brain wants closure, not productivity.
If something is unfinished and not clearly defined, your mind keeps bringing it back up.
By capturing:
- You stop relying on memory
- Your brain relaxes because it trusts the system
- Mental noise drops
- Focus improves because attention isn’t being hijacked by reminders
Your mind responds appropriately instead of being constantly agitated. Because now you can focus on adapting, being creative, and solving the only thing in front of you that you, by your own choice, have decided to take on.
Key Rules of Capturing
- Capture everything in as few places as possible
One notebook, one app, one inbox—fragmentation kills trust. - Capture immediately
Don’t wait. If you think “I’ll remember this later,” that’s the trap. - Don’t organize yet
Capturing is just dumping. Clarity comes after everything is out of your head.
The Big Psychological Shift
Once everything is captured:
- You no longer need to think about what you should remember
- You gain a sense of control—not because you’ve done everything, but because nothing is lost
- Stress decreases because uncertainty decreases
You can relax only when you know you’re not missing anything.
My Current Capturing System
At first, this will feel like a lot. And it might be, but once you have your systems in place, life becomes “flow”. Everything starts working your way because you can see the big picture. Now every step you take feels like YOU bent reality to your will, because YOU do.
My Journals:
One of my best ones is my Journal. It has helped me heal, process life, vent, clarify, and more. The simple act of journaling has helped me in every aspect of my life. It’s one of the best things everyone should do. It tells your mind to get creative, to be free, to dream, plan, to write anything and everything whenever you feel you need to or want to. In your journal, everything and anything is possible.
My Phone:
You have the whole world in the palm of your hand. Use it wisely or it will consume you. In your Notes App, which every smartphone has, use the app to capture things.
I have in mine:
General notes:
Here I have my main goals and priorities for the year, here too all the way at the top. Then I have my affirmations that I read to myself every time I open my notes.
Here, I capture things that don’t currently have a specific destination or need more clarity on. I can write small notes to later on go more in depth about it in my journal.
I write in bullet point form different things that I’m not sure what list they should go on. So I will write it here until I clarify the next step. For example, “Set an appointment with my tax consultant to file my taxes”. This goes here because it’s not a definite date, I don’t know the contact info or I’m not in town. For any of these reasons, there is no clear action or next step, but at least I know it’s out of my mind, written in my reliable system to come back to and deal with it. Once I have the contact info, or I’m back in town and ready to set a definite date, then I can put it in my calendar.
Budget planned Expenses Notes:
If anything comes to mind when I’m on the go that I need to plan for in my budget, I write it here. Later on, I’ll review the list when I’m going over my budget. This could be anything from small things to big expenses. I have a whole system on budgeting, but that’s a whole separate video. The main thing is to have somewhere to capture things on the Go in order to review later on.
Example for this list: While checking my car tires, I noticed my two front tires need replacement soon. I wrote this down, and when I go over my Monthly budget, I can better plan where my money will go for the month.
Groceries Notes:
Here, I add anything I might need for the week, and then I go over it when I go to the store. I don’t have to buy everything I write there. But, at least now when I go to the store, I can go over my list and see what I need more urgently, what’s the priority or what I should erase from the list because it was a bad idea to begin with hehe.
Here I write anything I think I will need in the long term or short term, and before going to the store, I review it to make sure my shopping is within reason.
Business or Product Ideas Notes:
Here I write about any ideas for a product, a business or any money-making ideas. Even non-profit ideas. Heck, Rolex is a non-profit organization. Anything money-making related that comes to mind, I write it down. Our brains are full of very profitable ideas. We need to write them down. You never know where one of them can take you.
My Calendar:
This one I only use for things that are set and definite. Don’t write what you intend to do, but what you know has to be done. Only added to your calendar if it has a set date, time, and place.
Or if it has to be done at some point during that day, as long as it gets done, then you can schedule it on your calendar.
Example: If you’re leaving on vacation and you have to reschedule a meeting before you leave the next day. It might not matter what time, but it does matter that it gets done that day; schedule it as an all-day reminder. The sooner you deal with it, the sooner you can turn off the reminders for that date.
Birthdays are another example of this. Don’t forget to say happy birthday to your loved ones. Set a definite date reminder.
Love Ones:
Make a list of your important relationships, too. It will tremendously improve your most important relationships. If you are in a relationship and improving, maintaining or working on your relationship is important to you, trust me and make a list.
Keep it simple, keep it on your phone.
You can make a single capturing place or an individual place for each person you care about most.
Let’s say you heard a new restaurant opened in town and you want to go try it out with your significant other; write it down. Want to try bowling with your sibling? Write it down. Anything you believe you want to do with them that will maintain or improve the relationship or anything you want to experience with them, just write it down.
You can later review it and plan accordingly. From here in can go to your calendar, budget, and so on and on.
The Next three are the most important capturing tools in my life. These three combined are the tools that changed my life. Literally, every aspect of my life started improving when I started using these systems. Each one would require its own video. Each one could be an entire course.
My Vision Board
It’s a Google Docs file in Vertical form for more space.
At the very top, I have pictures of all the main things I want to accomplish in life.
Next, I have my current Year’s resolution
Next, I have my life mission statement.
Next, I have my career mission statement
Next, I have my examples of people I look up to and who I want to be in life.
Next, and final, I have three columns in a checklist format. The 1st column is “Accomplished Goals”, the 2nd is “Open Goals” 3rd is “Working on Goals”.
It’s nice, and it feels rewarding to look back and see what goals were once important to me and know what I’ve accomplished.
My Budget
My budget is a Google Sheet for a monthly budget. Every month I go over my budget and see where my money is going and where I want it to go the next month.
Tap I have and keep track of:
Planned Expenses: Like I said its great to have a capturing system. One tab I have is Budget Planned Expenses Notes. Yes, so here is where I transfer the notes I have from my phone.
All the upcoming expenses I should be planning for. Unexpected expenses like new tires. Or if I found out my favorite artist is performing in my city this year, I can add to the list. Or I want to get my windows tinted this year, so I can add this to the list too.
Anything that is in your mind that can be an expense to plan for, I added it to the list. Get rid of it in your mind and transfer it somewhere. When you go over your list and your budget every month you can decide if it’s something you actually want to spend your money on, if its something you can afford now (this month), if it’s something you should start saving for or if it should stay on the list for later in the future as a possibility but not sure yet kind of thing. Ex. maybe you want to buy a motorcycle, but you’re not sure if that’s what you really want so you don’t want to make any plans yet for budgeting.
Summary Tab: This is the overview of my whole budget. How much money I started the month with, where I planned to spen,d and how much for each expense.
Transactions Tab: Here are all the transactions from my checking account. I only have one checking account and one savings account. I know I can easily see everything from my bank statements but doing this manually allows me to see each individual transaction and see any suspected irregular activity or to see patterns of where I’m spending my money. Every transaction will show automatically in the summary and add itself up to see how much in tidal I spent in an area.
Savings/Investments Tab: Here is where I can see my networth. How much I have saved and how much I have left for a specific investment goal.
Owed To Me Tab: If I lent money to someone, I keep track here of who, when, and how much. I track each payment with a date. Note: Don’t give money/lend to anyone, and if you do, don’t expect that money back ever. Unless you’re doing it as a business deal with a contract and you will get interest in return. Its your hard-earned money, and someone not paying you back will define the price of that relationship.
Debt Tab: Here I track who I owe, and how much I owe. I keep track of my car loan, the interest rate, and the monthly payment amount. Having this allows me to get creative and see if it’s necessary to refinance, if I can afford to make an extra payment and so on.
If you don’t know where your money is going and if you don’t care for it and give it attention, it will go to someone else who does.
My Calendar Life Road Map
This is an overview of where you want your life to go. As soon as I found out what or where I wanted to go, I emailed my manager to request the days.
Vacation doesn’t have to mean something expensive or crazy travel plans. It can be something based on what you can afford. It can even be a small weekend trip. That is what the budget is for, remember?
The more you plan, the more you can decide where your money and time go to.
It feels good to see all my plans ahead of time, see where my life is going, and decide if that is what I really want for myself. You can plan your yearly projects here, vacations, and more. And the cool thing is that you can even write the step-by-step actions to take.
Summary: Declutter Your Mind for Productivity, Clarity, and Peace of Mind
As I continue working on my system, it improves every year based on my needs, wants and lifestyle. Small marginal improvements go a long way. The main thing is to be as consistent as possible and the results will come.
Your brain is not meant to be a storage unit—it’s meant to think, create, and solve problems. When you try to hold everything in your head, you stay in a constant low-grade state of stress. Open loops, unfinished thoughts, vague commitments, and “don’t forget this” reminders quietly drain your mental energy, leaving you feeling tired, overwhelmed, and anxious without knowing why.
You become a hoarder of thoughts and even in the physical world, too. How you think will show in your life.
Mental decluttering starts with capturing—emptying your mind into a trusted external system. Anything that pulls at your attention gets written down: tasks, ideas, worries, goals, commitments, and “someday” thoughts. Once everything is captured, your brain can finally relax because it no longer has to remember or constantly remind you.
The goal isn’t productivity—it’s clarity. Your mind wants closure. When things are clearly defined and stored outside your head, mental noise drops, focus improves, and stress decreases. You regain a sense of control—not because everything is done, but because nothing is lost.
By using simple, reliable tools—journals, notes, calendars, budgets, vision boards, and relationship lists—you create a system that works for you. Life begins to flow. You see the big picture. Every step feels intentional. Instead of reacting to chaos, you decide what deserves your time, energy, and attention.
When your mind is clear, you can fully focus on the one thing in front of you—by choice. That’s where productivity, creativity, and peace of mind truly come from.
