Stressed? Distracted? Drained? Treat Clutter as a Real Suspect

Is clutter really that big of a deal? It is if you’re an introvert and thus already prone to feeling overstimulated and drained by external circumstances.

You’re going to chuckle when you hear what I did immediately before writing this article.

Though, if you’re an introvert like me, your grin might well be a knowing one.

What did I do?

I cleaned up—in a variety of critical ways that I’m convinced promote success for me and many other introverts too.

Let me explain.

When You’re Surrounded

I work from home, which means that I write in my small, downstairs office or, much more frequently, upstairs at our kitchen table.

The kitchen, like the rest of our home’s upper level, has an abundance of appealing space and natural light.

Unfortunately, it also tends to have an abundance of less-appealing dishes and assorted other crap.

So when I know I’m going to be working here, as I did this morning, I make peace with the idea that I will have to tidy up a bit first.

It’s not a choice; for me, it’s a requirement.

One I no longer fight.

I used to feel bad about this ritual; not so much “bad” as silly. After all: Isn’t cleaning up just a lame procrastination technique, pulled from a bad movie? (“I don’t feel like working. Gee, our toilets sure are dirty! Better get on that!”)

But I actually want to write. I always do. So the cleaning-up-as-procrastinating theory doesn’t pan out for me.

What’s really going on, I’ve learned, involves the genuinely debilitating effects of something we all deal with in life, but that likely hits introverts especially hard.

Clutter.

What’s So Bad About Clutter?

I can’t (yet!) find any scientific studies to directly back me up in what I’m about to say.

But if you combine the available evidence with personal experience as well as long-standing theories about the physiological roots of introversion (and thus extroversion), it’s not such a leap to make the case that—at a bare minimum—you should watch out for clutter if you’re an introvert.

Put another way:

Whenever you’re feeling overly distracted or stressed or drained—or all three and more—you would be wise to examine and then do something about the various forms of clutter in your life.

Let’s look briefly at what we strongly suspect and what we actually know about the crossroads of introversion and clutter.

The Evidence Is Compelling

Back in the 1960s, psychologist Hans Eysenck theorized that, perhaps counterintuitively, introverts have a higher baseline level of arousal than do extroverts.

This seems to explain why we introverts tend to be easily overcooked in, for example, social situations or stimulating environments; we’ve started with a higher level of arousal to begin with compared to our extroverted counterparts.

Other work has shown that introverts have a less-active response system than do extroverts when it comes to the neurotransmitter dopamine, a chemical our brain offers up when it senses that some sort of external reward is at hand (or has already arrived).

Thus, the typical introvert who is surrounded by a bunch of stuff—when he’s trying to write at his kitchen table, just to cite a random example!—won’t necessarily see the stuff as attractive or particularly helpful.

In fact—and this is where more recent research comes in—we introverts might experience such visual clutter as harmful, even if we’re not aware of what’s happening to us in the moment.

Why?

Because clutter has been repeatedly shown to increase levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the bodies of introverts and extroverts alike.

So what does it all add up to?

Well, if you’re an introvert, you’re apt to be more aroused than your extroverted counterparts right out of the gate, even in a clutter-free zone.

Add the clutter, then, and not only are you at risk for runaway arousal, you’re also at risk for experiencing untenable levels of cortisol to boot.

And you may not even be conscious of any of it as it’s happening.

That’s why it’s so important for you to at least consider the possibility that clutter—and not just visual clutter—is having a negative impact on your introverted well-being.

Types of Clutter

Leadership speaker and mindset expert Tricia Molloy suggests that we look for, and address, three distinct types of clutter in our lives:

Physical clutter. Perhaps the most obvious source of clutter, this is the literal mess you can see all around you—especially if, like me, you have kids.

Technical clutter. What does your computer’s desktop look like right now? How many unread emails do you have in your in-box? Is your cell phone constantly pinging with notifications from various 
social media outlets? If you think you have information overload, you likely do.

Emotional clutter. Maybe your to-do list is a mile long and never shortens. Maybe you had a fight last night with your spouse and you’re feeling less than resolved about it all. Or maybe you’ve got a toxic person or two in your life who need to better respect your boundaries, or who need to go completely.

It’s impossible, of course, to eliminate all clutter from your life. But if you take it as the potentially serious threat to your health that it is, you’ll find that you can do quite a lot to tame it, even with seemingly small adjustments.

It Pays to Clean Up

So … what did I do before writing this article?

As I said: I cleaned up. But with all three of Molloy’s areas in mind.

I washed and dried the morning dishes, standing right next to the dishwasher as I did so. Why? Because the dishwasher was (and still is) filled with last night’s dishes, which can wait. Out of sight really is out of mind.

I then took a walk around the block to get a bit of fresh air and clear my head.

And finally, I closed my email program, closed my web browser, disabled my wireless connection, put my cell phone in the other room, and … began to write.

Without a fight.