April is Stress Awareness Month, which raises awareness of the negative impact that stress has on the general public in the United Kingdom. We have suffered from the stress of the previous two years, which has had a negative impact on our psychological well-being.
It may be really beneficial to learn to manage our stress and to discover good methods to deal with stressful events in order to live a healthy and productive life. A great way to avoid these situations is to declutter your house and digital devices.
Clear the clutter from your smart gadgets
An Ofcom survey published recently indicated that individuals in the United Kingdom spend on average 45 hours per week watching television. On the contrary, excessive screen time and/or overstuffed or crowded phones might have the following negative consequences:
- Has a negative influence on your mental health. Extended exposure to the social media feeds of friends and influencers can cause emotions of worry, loneliness, and inadequacy, among other things.
- Causes your phone to run slower. Excessive applications can slow down the performance of your phone, making it take longer to execute activities.
- You become less productive. Certain applications and alerts might be a source of distraction, impairing your ability to complete tasks on time.
- Stress levels rise. Being unable to efficiently utilize your digital service because it is cluttered might leave you feeling overwhelmed and stressed.
Consequently, it is critical to simplify our digital gadgets in order to assist minimize stress to the greatest extent feasible.
Tips for decluttering
Reduce your time spent on social media
Reduce the amount of time you spend on social networking applications by filtering your newsfeed (49 minutes a day on average).
Advantage: It helps you to have a more positive outlook and to manage emotions of worry, loneliness, and inadequacy.
Delete any programs that are no longer in use
Remove any applications from your phone that you are no longer using in order to maintain your home screen clutter-free.
Advantage: Ensures that your device operates more quickly and effectively.
Make a folder for everything
You should create folders for different types of apps in order to maintain your home screen clean and well organized.
Advantage: Increases your productivity while also streamlining your overall experience with the product.
Turn off push notifications if you don’t want them
Push notifications may be turned off in the Settings menu to reduce distractions.
Advantage: You’ll feel less stressed and be able to finish things on time.
Clear the clutter from your home
A messy house might have a negative impact on your mental health. Donate, recycle, or sell stuff that you no longer need in order to free up space in your house. Some of the downsides of having a messy house include:
- It encourages the development of harmful behaviours. Clutter might cause people to engage in coping and avoidance behaviors such as excessive eating and binge-watching television shows.
- Increases the likelihood of sleep deprivation. The presence of clutter in one’s sleeping quarters might increase the likelihood of experiencing sleep disorders, which can include difficulty falling asleep and being awakened throughout the night.
- Anxiety levels are raised. It overloads the mind with excessive stimulation, causing the senses to work overtime on things that aren’t even significant to them.
- Guilty sentiments are triggered. The lack of cleanliness and organization in your home can cause emotions of shame and humiliation, especially when guests are invited.
Tips for decluttering
Take it one room at a time, if necessary
Choose one room and work your way through cleaning until it’s completely clean. This lessens the possibility of burnout that may occur if you attempted to clean everything in one sitting.
Advantage: Allows you to see the results of your work more quickly, which increases your productivity and increases your likelihood of continuing to clean.
Make three stacks of materials
Sort your belongings into three piles: items you want to retain, things you want to throw away or recycle, and goods you want to donate to a charity or ‘freecycle.’
Advantage: These chores are actionable, and knowing what to do with them once you’ve finished categorizing them is a great way to save time.
Be ruthless
If you haven’t used the item in the previous six months – and you don’t intend to use it in the future six months – you should consider donating it.
Advantage: Maintaining a clean and orderly environment can assist you in being more productive and avoiding the development of undesirable habits.
Make it a permanent alteration in your way of life
Include five minutes of decluttering into your daily routine to help create positive habits.
Advantage: It gives you a sense of accomplishment since it is simpler to keep a clean home if you take tiny measures frequently.
