There has been a lot of rain lately but like it or not, we are in spring! My daughter keeps reminding me, “April showers bring May flowers.” To which I always want to add, “And what do May flowers bring? …Pilgrims!” But as a five year old, she hasn’t learned anything about that yet. J

Seriously, what’s more worthwhile during this time of year then a little spring cleaning? Spring cleaning doesn’t just happen with clothes and yards and debris. It can also happen in our mind. What do we do when our mind gets cluttered with too much drama or things that get in our way of better performance?

In his YouTube video, Alex Dorr describes 3 tools for Mental Minimalism and how the benefits of decluttering our mind help us clean up our thinking and move forward.

1. Edit your story:  When something happens that creates clutter in your mind, write it down. Write down the whole story and what you’re thinking and feeling. Then go back through your story and cross out anything you can’t know for sure. If you’ve listed someone’s thoughts or state of mind, cross it out. You don’t know that for sure. Just get down to the essential facts, those things you know for sure. It removes the drama and our ego and helps us get clarity around what we know for sure.
2. “This Means That”: Put the two columns below on a piece of paper. Write down what happened. A simple example is listed below. Look at the “Means That” column. Is any of that true? Do you actually know any of that to be true? We realize the stories we’ve created in our head versus actual facts we know to be true.

1. SBAR: This is a great tool if you have trouble turning thoughts or ideas into action and if things feel scattered in your head.
   S = Situation: One or two sentences of just facts, what you know for sure.A = Analysis or assessment: What do we know, what has been done?
2. R = Recommendations: It’s important to include a couple or recommendations for how to move forward.
3. B = Background: Why are we bringing this up? What’s relevant about this idea or issue?

If you would like assistance working through any of these tools for decluttering your mind or how you can coach employees to use these tools, I’d love to work with you!

View Dorr’s video here.

Lisa