Do you often feel like your brain is always “on”, with all of the things you have to do circling around in your mind? It can feel never ending with the responsibilities you have for family, work and your home. From making sure everyone is where they need to be everyday to planning meals to laundry, the list never feels done. It’s overwhelming and exhausting carrying around this invisible mental weight. The good news is you can reduce your mental load by simplifying your routines, schedule and home.
What is mental load?
Mental load is all of the things you are thinking about that need to be done. Whether you are physically doing them or not, they are always there silently running in the background of your mind. It’s like your brain has too many tabs open or is covered in sticky notes, reminding you to schedule that dentist appointment, buy milk, wash towels and plan dinner. It doesn’t matter that you just got out of bed and haven’t even had breakfast yet. Your system is overloaded so it slows down, things get forgotten and you become stressed and overwhelmed. Mental load is invisible clutter and just like physical clutter, it can pile up fast!

Ease Your Mental Load
So how do we take back control and reduce the mental clutter that’s dragging us down? The first and ongoing step is to get the list out of your head so your brain doesn’t have to remember everything. Write down what you need to do. You can create a family calendar, use a weekly planner or a simple notepad. Have multiple lists, if that helps, to separate what you need to focus on now and what can wait until later.
The key to having less to do and think about is to declutter. Work on decluttering all the things. Your spaces in your home, your schedule and your routines. It’s important to know it’s ok to reduce any unnecessary obligations that take up too much of your time. Once you’ve decluttered and removed what doesn’t serve you, you can switch gears and focus on creating systems and building routines to keep your home and life running smoothly.
If you have big home projects you can’t stop thinking about, create a plan that breaks that project down into smaller, manageable pieces. Again, write it down. If you want to declutter and organize your pantry, break that down into actionable steps like “toss expired items” or “organize snacks”. You don’t have to finish a task all at once, any progress is progress.
As you declutter and build routines, the systems start to do the heavy lifting for you. Labeled bins in the pantry, shared chore charts and a running grocery store list on the fridge isn’t just about being organized. It literally takes the pressure off of your brain. Planning your meals is easier because your pantry is organized and you have a weekly meal plan. You get to close the “don’t forget the appointment” tab in your head because you have it on the list now.

Gain More With Less
More Energy
Decision fatigue is real and really stressful. Carrying a heavy mental load is draining. When your home and life is streamlined with systems in place, you reduce the number of decisions you have to constantly make. This naturally reduces the stress and overwhelm you feel when you are always scrambling and gives you more time and energy to do the things you want to do.
More Focus
With all those tabs open, it’s impossible to truly focus on any one thing. With less to think about, your brain has more space to give to the thing you are doing now, allowing you to more efficiently work on the task at hand. You will get more done in less time and be able to look past your day to day to plan and implement your bigger goals and projects.
More Control
When you reduce your mental load and create organized systems in your home, you will begin to feel more in control of your life and responsibilities. Your days run smoother, there’s less stress and more predictability. We all know we are not the best versions of ourselves when we are stressed. You will have more balance in your home that will be felt by you and your family.
When your home and life has organized systems that work, you and your brain can finally relax!

If you need a hand decluttering and organizing your home, we’re here to help!
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Contact Organized Jill for a complimentary consultation.