fbpx

How a Box Will Increase Your Energy

Looking at clutter uses energy. Brain scans show that the more objects you have within your field of view, the faster you get tired and lose focus. Even though the brain is capable of filtering out all the items that are not relevant to the task at hand, it does spend energy doing so.

To increase your focus, you need to see fewer objects. But you don’t need to throw anything away (unless you want to). You simply need to group items together. Take a number of items that have some relation to each other and put them in a box. Eight pens, a pile of paperclips, a tape dispenser and a pair of scissors become one object when they go into a box.

It is important you can satisfy yourself that the items belong together. Throwing random objects into a box doesn’t trick your brain. It will look at a box it knows contains unsorted junk and continue thinking of all the items in the box. And now you have added an extra item: The box.

Get out some boxes and remove some clutter from your field of vision. You will notice increased clarity and energy. You just might get around to tasks you have been putting off for weeks.

Design Your Space

Before lockdown, you spent much of your time in curated space. Someone carefully designed your experience in a restaurant or a coffee shop through decorations, choice of color, arrangement of furniture and many other things. Your workplace was also curated, though probably less obviously so. But somebody thought about plants, lighting, and more.

During lockdown, you spend all of your time in your own space, and that might not be a carefully designed. But it could be. After all, this is your space.

Pick up a pen and a piece of paper and sit in the place where you spend most of your time. Look around and make a note of the things your could improve. You might recycle some books from an overstuffed bookshelf, or replace a worn rug, or clear the clutter from a table. Improve your space, and you improve your well-being.