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Conscious Thinking House Cleaning unclutter

Why Use It

Just as external distractions like a phone ringing or loud talking can detract from one’s ability to think clearly, likewise mental distractions or clutter inside the mind can interfere with thinking. The following are techniques to clean up all the useless information or half-complete communication on which people unconsciously have their attention. Just like cleaning your desk to better find things, Memory and Emotion Uncluttering techniques can improve your thinking abilities.

How to Use It
Memory Uncluttering: An example of memory clutter is Trapped Memory. Every time we decide to call someone, we attach a little piece of memory to it.  Our mind only has so many pieces of memory to use. Every ‘busy’, ‘no answer’, ‘call back latter’, ‘person not there’...traps a little piece of our mental attention. In fact, our memory may be waiting for answers that never come. There may be thousands of bits of information that are not needed or cannot be applied, that jam up one's thinking.

Mental Uncluttering Questions	· Is there data you could do without? · What thought could you throw away? · Is there something you're still thinking about long after it's worthwhile to do so? · What have you started that you haven't finished? · What in-progress action is unnecessary? · What calls are you still waiting for? · Did you ever get the answer you wanted?
Avoid Memorizing	Reduce memory clutter by writing things down, using notes, calendars, bring-up files, timers, and day planners to hold the information you would otherwise memorize.
Use Reference Material	Reduce clutter by depending on the Internet or reference material instead of trying to memorize the information they contain.

Adapted from a variety of sources including: Richard Fobs, Creative Problem Solvers Toolbox, (Corvallis Or., Solutions Through Innovation)

Emotion Uncluttering: Emotional clutter is negative feelings that last long after the event that triggered them. The mind remembers a traumatic event long after it happens because it wants to avoid future similar events. So even if you push the memory of a traumatic event out of your conscious mind, the subconscious mind continues to be aware of it.

Reducing emotional clutter not only helps conscious thinking but also maximizes accuracy of your intuition. Intuition is so similar to emotions that the same word, feelings, is used to refer to both emotional and intuitive sensations. A full explanation of releasing emotional clutter can fill books. To get started consider doing one or more of the following:

Physical Exercise	Exercise is a simple but effective way to clear out emotional clutter. Especially taking a walk and looking around.
Meditation	Mediation provides your mind with time to clear emotional clutter. It is a good way to help you recognize and then ‘let go’ of the distracting emotional clutter.
Forgiveness	Forgiveness releases the person’s emotional attachments that interfere with their ability to think clearly and freely experience life.
Truthfulness	Tell the truth and get lies off your chest. This is temporarily unpleasant to do and handle, but when it’s done you feel better.
Laughter	Laughing is another way to help. If you cannot laugh about a situation, try distorting it to make it look silly or humorous.
Crying	Crying by reflecting on an emotional event is effective in releasing emotional clutter.
Emote	Scream, yell, punch a bag and get it out.
Responsibility	Take responsibility for the situation and do something effective to solve it or make-up for the damage done.
Talk	Get it off your mind and express it to a good listener, once and for all.
Deep Breathing	Deep breathing exercises can provide quick temporary release.