The mess you stopped noticing
Hey Reader,
My fiancée Dani sat me down this week and said something that bruised my ego.
“Babe… this house is a mess.”
I looked around…. seemed fine to me?
A few things on the counter, some film gear from Tuesday’s shoot still out, shoes by the door. Normal stuff.
She wasn’t having it.
So we spent an entire Sunday deep cleaning everything. Put away the Ninja Creami I haven’t used all month. Emptied two vacuums’ worth of German Shepherd hair.
And something weird happened
I felt calmer all week. Not just “oh the house looks nice” calmer. Like, ideas came easier, I could actually focus, the low-level static in my brain that I’d stopped noticing was even there just… went quiet.
That made me wonder what other messes I’d been living in without realizing it.
Because there are two types of clutter that are quietly making everything harder:
- Visual clutter
- Mental clutter
Consider this your spring cleaning issue.
Visual clutter
After Dani was right about the house (she’s always right btw), I started looking at my office differently.
Visual clutter competes with your brain for attention, and it actually makes you more stressed. Every random object your eyes land on gets processed in the background.
Like having 30 browser tabs open. Nothing’s visibly wrong, but everything runs slower.
So I stripped my desk down to as minimal as possible.
Then I got rid of my bookshelf entirely.
Even downsized and donated 50+ books I outgrew.
This used to be my view from my desk. I realized I was reading the titles on the spines dozens of times a day while trying to work:
Now they live in my closet behind a curtain.
Out of sight, out of mind.
Literally:
I know this sounds like the most basic advice on earth. (”Clean your room. Groundbreaking!”) But most of us overlook the simple and go straight to complex.
You don’t notice how much your environment is taxing you until you simplify it. I promise a clean house beats a cold plunge.
Start with one space: One room. One closet. One desk.
Put on a podcast or an audiobook and give it three hours on a Sunday. If you can swing it, a cleaning service for a couple hundred bucks might be the most productive money you spend all month.
I promise you, the mental clarity that comes from a clean space will surprise you.
Mental clutter
The same thing is happening between your ears and it’s way harder to see.
Your brain generates noise all day long.
Most of it is clutter.
Every time you board a plane, somewhere in your head a little voice whispers, “what if this thing crashes.” Every single time. You don’t act on it because you know it’s nonsense.
But for some reason, when that same voice says “you’re falling behind” or “that meeting went terribly,” you treat it like a trusted advisor instead of what it actually is: a paranoid roommate who’s been watching too much news.
I’ll give you an example.
When I was running my coaching company, I interviewed someone for a role. He was sharp, came prepared, no red flags.
Good interview.
The next day, he sent me a long email apologizing. Listing five things he thought he messed up and asking me not to hold it against him.
I’m reading this email thinking, I didn’t notice a single one of these things.
I felt for him because I’ve been that person.
But because he called attention to them, now they existed. He created five problems out of thin air because his inner critic convinced him they were real.
Overthinking is the art of creating problems that were never there.
When I first got started filming YouTube videos, I’d be mid-take and my inner critic would pipe up: “This is dumb. You already said this. The hook wasn’t strong enough. Just start over.”
Early on, I’d listen. I’d scrap takes, redo entire videos, lose hours to a voice in my head that had zero credibility.
So I made a rule: finish every single video I start, no matter what the voice says.
Because nine times out of ten, when I’m watching it back in the editor, it’s way better than I thought while I was filming it.
The thing about your internal noise is you’re the only one who can hear it.
So how do you clean a cluttered mind?
Same way you clean a messy house. You stop treating every piece of junk like it belongs there.
Instead of arguing with it or believing every thought, just notice them.
“Oh, there’s that thought again. Cool. Anyway…”
That’s it.
You don’t fight the clutter, you just start cleaning it up.
Back to the house
I keep thinking about that Sunday with Dani.
How I looked around and genuinely thought everything was fine. How she saw what I’d gone blind to.
That’s how most of this works. The clutter on your desk that you’ve stopped seeing, the thoughts you’ve been believing without questioning, the noise you’ve been carrying so long it just feels like who you are.
But then you clear one counter and the whole week feels different, and you start wondering what else you’ve been tolerating that you forgot was even there.
Sometimes the fastest way to feel lighter is to stop adding and start removing.
Life updates
Secret project
Been working on something special for you. Can’t say much yet, but here’s a sneak peek. Any guesses? Keep your eyes on your inbox the next few weeks 🤫
What I’m listening to
My favorite release of 2025. Epic driving and drumming music. Give a listen but only if you like heavy atmospheric stuff.
New video
Got a chart video for you this week, deep diving on dopamine holes and how to pull yourself out! If you’ve been feeling flat or burnt lately, this ones for you.
See you next saturday,
CK
