The Inbox To Your Mind

​Inbox overload
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In the world that we now live in, so fast paced and technology driven I sometimes think about how we live and organise our lives.  Things seem to have changed so much in the last 20 years but the reality is looking back things were always changing but for me it seemed to be at a much slower pace. Now I look at things through the eyes of technology and everything seems to be changing so much faster.
 
My personal inbox currently has 1,997 unread emails, which are a combination of newsletters, links to articles I would like to read, restaurants that I would love to go to at some point and general flotsam and jetsam, soon I will collate what’s in this inbox, quickly scan for anything remotely interesting, read if I choose to and then hit the delete button.
 
Mailbox declutter
 
The reality is the majority of these emails will go into my trash never to be read nor seen again but I like to think that in keeping them for now I am giving myself choice. The priority for reading my emails is business first, I have a separate account for business emails, which I guard with my life and then I have one other account especially for my Accountant.
 
I imagine that my personal inbox will never be satisfactorily cleared unless at some point I am honest with myself. Do I really need to know of the existence of all these different learning programmes? Do I need to know what the latest craze is for anti-aging? 
 
I suspect that I will never choose to find the time to read these emails because I have other things that I want to do and that ultimately they will all just end up in my huge capacity trash folder.

What does the ‘Inbox to your mind’ look like?
 
In a conversation I was having recently I made a reference to the “inbox in your head”, which I have now decided to think of as the “Inbox to your mind”.
 
How organised is yours?  Do you have nicely organised and arranged folders, a task list that you think up on a daily basis and then write these down so you don’t forget, a pending folder to hold that thought, a spam folder for all the nonsense that you process daily and a trash folder that you empty regularly so that your mind doesn’t become overloaded.
 
 
Are our minds just as well organised or as disorganised as our work or personal email accounts?  Some might find that the work email is more organised than the personal or vice versa. Most of us are inundated with emails both at work and in our personal lives.  Many of us are inundated with thoughts that we are not entirely sure how to process.
 
How can you clear your mind?
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Do you want to make space for clearer thoughts?
Would you like to declutter your mind even just a little bit?
 
I think that it is important and can also be invigorating to periodically clear the ‘Inbox to your mind’. Allowing yourself to take a step back and reviewing your clutter can help you to create a more clear and focused path to what you want.  Making time to invite a new perspective can be one of the most revitalising exercises that you can do for yourself?
 
Whether or not to make and take time out, from the hustle and bustle of life is a choice. If you want it, choose it.
 
Where do you begin?
 
This decision as with any other resolute thought, lies with your commitment.
Do you truly want to begin the process of finding your own way to ‘mind declutter’?
 
Here are some of the things I do, you can use these to get you started or create your own:

• Carry a notebook at all times.  Use it to capture important thoughts.
• Find somewhere to sit quietly, not quite meditating but something close to it.
• Listening to, observing and learning from others, which might sound paradoxical but there is much to learn from the behaviour of others both positive and what might be deemed as negative behaviours. What is new to you? What can you learn? What can you take on board? What can you leave behind?
• Take a phone break, most of the time my phone is on silent but I sometimes choose to leave it in another room, that way I am not distracted by notifications or using it for other time stealing activities.
• Exercising for me is also a great time to clear my mind inbox and when the inbox is idle, other clearer, more interesting, enlightening and inspiring thoughts are allowed to enter into my mind’s consciousness.
• Prioritise your conversations and interactions or let some go where you can.

Reconnecting, slowing down, decluttering and tidying up is important. Choose to create time and allow your mind to recharge and reset itself.
 
What will you do first?

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