Tidying Up as a Response to Stress and Overload

When you have an appointment, a phone call, or a guest arriving at home, you might find yourself tidying up at home while you have more important things to do. This behavior, where people start tidying up things in their home while they have more important tasks, is not trivial and can be beneficial. Science has shown that this type of behavior helps with emotional regulation, allowing individuals to better manage stress, relax, and unwind. According to a study available on ScienceDirect, when an important task causes stress, boredom, anxiety, or a sense of difficulty, our brain seeks to quickly reduce this unpleasant emotion. Thus, doing something else, such as tidying up, cleaning, answering emails, or organizing files, allows us to feel momentarily relieved. This behavior can also be explained by the need for control in the face of burnout. When our brain feels overwhelmed, we may tend to focus on other tasks that will unconsciously free our mind and allow us to feel better. Concretely, you are not necessarily trying to avoid work, but your brain wants to regain control in the face of a feeling of overload. However, mental overload leads to distraction: so, how to get rid of it? To limit mental overload and take care of your mind, there are certain habits to put in place: making to-do lists, stopping doing everything at once, and prioritizing tasks. Making to-do lists when you start your day allows you to free your mind by listing things you need to do in order of priority. This allows you to move step by step, and if there are things you have not managed to put in place, you can move them to the next day. Stopping doing everything at once is another essential point to lighten your mind, allowing you to focus on one task at a time. This allows you to avoid mental overload and distraction. Prioritizing tasks allows you to focus on what is really important and free your mind. Next time you start tidying up while you have something more important to do, ask yourself instead if you might not need to take a break and free your mind.