Chaos to Clarity: 2-Step Process to Organize Your Mind Forever [4-min read]
Have you ever tried pressing both the gas and brake pedals simultaneously in your car?
It doesn't make sense, right?
Yet, many entrepreneurs (including my past self) do this every day in their work.
They fail to eliminate a problem that slows them down and compromises their efforts.
What is this problem?
Open loops.
These are unprocessed, unfinished, recurring thoughts that clutter your mind.
Examples include "I need to remind Sally about the project deadline", "I'm worried I won't meet this quarter's goals", "Is my dentist appointment today or tomorrow?", “Do I have eggs?”, content ideas, etc.
If you're running a business, chances are you have numerous open loops lingering in your mind—and they’re compromising your results.
Open loops destroy:
Focus, as unprocessed thoughts and ideas constantly pull your attention in different directions.
Decision-making, as the clutter prevents you from seeing the bigger picture.
Productivity, as instead of addressing important problems, you try to close open loops by multitasking.
Creativity, as a cluttered mind leaves little space for new thoughts to emerge.
In short, open loops lead to stress and waste a significant amount of time (easily 2-3 hours of quality work lost per day).
This is why eliminating open loops is the first thing I do when working with entrepreneurs.
My clients, who are often overwhelmed and constantly busy, are often amazed at how clear their minds can become.
And having a clear mind is the first step to achieving results like this
Today, I'll share the decluttering process with you.
The Process
The process is simple and efficient. It involves just 2 steps—capture and organize—and takes less than 10 minutes per day.
This process will:
Provide total clarity: Keep your mind clear and have more mental space to focus on what matters.
Eliminate stress: Create a trusted place and cadence to review your work & resources
Turn inputs into results: Enhance productivity and get more done.
Now, let's tackle each one of them.
STEP #1: CAPTURE
Capture everything into an inbox.
And I mean everything—especially if it's distracting you from the present moment.
Have an interesting thought? Capture it.
Come across something interesting on the internet? Capture it.
Just remembered an important task for today? Capture it.
Why is capturing everything so important?
Because every thought that hasn't been captured becomes an open loop. Each open loop consumes mental energy. If you have too many open loops, you start feeling overwhelmed, unable to focus, and lacking clarity.
How to capture?
Set up your inbox
Choose a trusted note-taking or task-management tool. I use Notion, but there are numerous other options—ClickUp, Todoist, Evernote, Google Docs, Apple Notes, Obsidian, Roam Research, and many more.
Create your inbox—one place where you’ll capture ALL of your inputs.
Make the inbox easily accessible—both on your computer and phone. This means no more than 2 clicks away.
Start capturing
Whenever a thought pops into your head, capture it immediately—don’t let it clutter your mind. Don’t overthink it, keep it simple. The main goal is to capture as soon as possible and continue going about your day or work as usual. You’ll organize everything later.
This 30-second video shows my inbox setup.
Done? Okay, then you’re ready for step 2.
STEP #2: ORGANIZE
Before you start working each day, take 5 minutes to organize your inbox using the 5D process.
Organizing involves reviewing your inbox and adding necessary context for future use, making it easily accessible and actionable.
Why?
If you don't organize your information, it will become stagnant. Stagnant information becomes useless and eventually turns into clutter. To benefit from your information, you need to actively use it.
How to organize?
I follow the 5D process.
Review each inbox item and:
Delete (if not relevant)
Define ("what's the next action")
Do (if it will take less than 2 minutes)
Delegate (if someone else is better suited for the task)
Defer (if it will take more than 2 minutes) → schedule it by adding a future date.
Here's a 64-second video on how to organize:
Consistency
Consistency is key to reaping the benefits of this process.
To ensure consistency, both my clients and I set a calendar reminder for daily organization.
I encourage you to create a 10-minute calendar event for this activity.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, mastering the art of decluttering your mind through capturing and organizing your thoughts and tasks is not just a productivity hack; it is a fundamental shift in how you approach your work and life.
By diligently applying a two-step process of capturing everything that comes to mind and then organizing these thoughts systematically, you can transform chaos into clarity.
I have found repeatedly that this transformation leads to improved focus, better decision-making, increased productivity, and a resurgence of creativity.
Hope this helps!
With love,
Simon
P.S. Whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:
Processized Partnership: If you want to reclaim +10/week and spend most of your time on high-impact work (guaranteed), book a 30-min no-commitment call. I’ll audit your business for free and give you a roadmap for faster & stress-free growth.
EntrepreneurMind: The all-in-one Notion workspace to run your ENTIRE business in ONE place. It includes a 3-step system for effective work management. Satisfaction guaranteed: +100 purchases and 5-star only rating.
Free systems: Explore Notion templates for different business use cases.