How To Get Rid Of Brain Fog (Real-Life Example Included)
Ironically, I am writing this post while stuck in the thickest, stodgiest brain fog known to man.
So I’ll guide you (and myself) through the journey of breaking out of the brain rot–procrastination cycle.
As a productivity coach, people often assume I am immune to procrastination and somehow live in a utopia where I achieve everything I put my mind to with ease.
I wish that were the case!
But I still have days (like today) when my brain is trying to sabotage me.
So in this article, I’m going to walk you through the steps I am taking to clear the fog and take imperfect action… in real time.
So, what is brain fog?
Brain fog is when your brain feels cloudy, unfocused and stuck in mind-numbing activities.
It feels impossible to take one step forward towards your goals because your mind is confused and cluttered.
So you continue to procrastinate because even completing simple tasks feels overwhelming.
It can be caused by a variety of different things like poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, stress and lack of sleep.
It can also be caused by digital overload and doom-scrolling. That’s the main cause of my brain fog so this article will be focusing on that.
What are the signs?
Here are some signs you are struggling with brain fog:
- You can’t seem to focus or concentrate on anything
- Even after a rest, you still feel mentally drained
- You keep forgetting things you usually remember easily
- You get distracted or overwhelmed by the smallest things
- Deciding what to do next feels impossible
- You struggle to find the right words when talking
- You feel tired, but can’t seem to unwind or relax
- You can’t seem to get through your to-do list or finish tasks
If you’re struggling with any of these symptoms, the next 7 steps should help you break out of the fog and start taking steps towards your goals.
Step 1: Remind yourself WHO you are and what you stand for
Think of Mufasa appearing in the clouds confidently and slowly chanting:
‘Remember who you are’
‘Remember who you are’
‘Remember who you are’
Behind all of the foggy messiness is a person with hopes and dreams. You have goals that are achievable and a desire to live as the most self-actualised version of yourself.
That person is still there but you need to take the first step to reconnect with them.
And you do that by identifying your values.
Family and Freedom are 2 of mine.
So whenever I get caught in a doomscrolling brain rot cycle, I imagine a life where I can travel anywhere in the world and spend time with my family.
Procrastinating or living in brain fog means I am not living in alignment with my values.
Reconnect with your values by answering these questions and checking out this blog post about setting values-based goals.
- If money wasn’t a problem, what would your daily routine look like?
- What qualities do you admire the most in other people?
- What do you spend most of your time thinking about?
- In your ideal life, how do you want to feel?
- How do you want to make other people feel?
- What does achieving your goals help you grow as a person?
When you know what your values are and reconnected with your goals, the next steps are easy!
Related Post: How To Fail Fast And Become Unrecognizably Successful
Step 2: Repeat affirmations and/or a success script
Before I sat down to write this blog post, I read out loud my daily affirmation/mantra.
That simple act helped me snap out of the ‘woe is me’ mindset and motivated me to document my journey of breaking out of brain fog.
My affirmations are about empowering and educating my readers with content that is aligned with my values.
It reminded me that there is power in sharing my real-life struggles and that I could help one person by explaining how I get out of bad moods and foggy brain days.
Affirmations can be powerful but only if you use them correctly.
Here are my top tips:
- Create affirmations that align with your values and goals
- Confidently and clearly speak them out loud
- Sit up straight, and do a power pose
- Say it like you mean it (even if you don’t fully believe it yet!)
- Close your eyes and visualise your success.
- Believe that your dream life is already yours, you just have to reach out and take it
You can also use success scripts to help you achieve your goal. For example, here is the template of my daily success script that is based on the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. I’ve amended it to positive affirmations and values.
“I am [full name], and I embody the [power word, e.g., audacity, courage, resilience, determination] to pursue my goals with confidence and consistency.
Every day, I wake up feeling [positive emotion] and [positive emotion] because my life aligns with the values of [insert values].
To achieve [goal/achievement], I choose to let go of habits like [list unproductive habits e.g. doomscrolling, watching YouTube, tracking celebrity gossip] and replace them with actions that empower and uplift me.
I can see it now: [describe what you see and feel when achieving your goals]. I did it.
It is already mine. It is waiting for me to claim it.
I honour my dreams by sticking to the plan because I know that temporary discomfort is a small price to pay for the life I am creating.
I am deserving of success and happiness, and I will continue living a life aligned with my values.”
I say this affirmation in the morning and night and I also listen to a voice recording of it during the day when my energy dips.
Check out these posts if you would like some more affirmations:
- 123 Affirmations For Growth Mindset and Success
- 61 Motivating Affirmations To Overcome The Fear Of Success
- 100 Empowering Daily Affirmations To Overcome Procrastination
Step 3:log out of your social media (temporarily)
Constantly scrolling on social media and seeking new information is fueling your brain fog and keeping you stuck.
You need to log out of the apps or delete them from your phone.
Remember, your dreams are worth temporary discomfort. Because every time you reach for your phone (even for 5 minutes) you are triggering the reward centre in your brain.
These apps are designed to be addictive and they want you to keep scrolling your life away because YOU are the PRODUCT.
Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk don’t care about your wellbeing. They only want you to stay on the app and laugh at funny memes while they collect your data and funnel ads your way.
As Alex Hormozi says, ‘Attention is the new oil’. (You are the oil but not in a good way).
Don’t give away your power.
Set up app limits, delete the apps or log out.
Step 4: Brain dump and postpone your worries
You’re probably doomscrolling because you’re avoiding something very real that’s going on in your life.
Maybe an assignment deadline is approaching
Maybe you need to send a difficult email
Maybe you’re scared of failing
Maybe you’re scared of success and the responsibilities that come with it
Either way, you need to write it all down. Get it all out into the open so that it’s not weighing heavy on your mind.
For example, here are some of mine:
- I need to design a presentation for a workshop I volunteered to host
- I have to create 3 digital products in the next two weeks
- I haven’t packed for my trip to Barbados
- The tumble drier needs unloading
- I fell off my daily writing routine
- My LinkedIn post got NO likes or engagement. Embarrassing!
- I haven’t finished my freelance writing portfolio yet
- I’m worried I’m not good enough
Okay, so now it’s your turn:
- What is on your mind?
- What are you avoiding?
- What do you need to do?
- How are you feeling?
It’s a safe space. You’re only writing your worries in your notebook, I shared mine online for judgement and scrutiny.
But remember, we’re working through this together. I’ve got your back and you’ve got mine. We’ll be out of this brain fog in no time at all!
I’m not 100% ready to tackle my tasks with a clear mind but working through this article and ticking off these tried and tested activities has given me hope again.
Step 5: put on your favourite motivating song
We all have that one song that makes you feel alive again. Now is the time to play it.
You need to channel your Main Character Energy and imagine this time in your life as the moment you discover you are capable of achieving your goals (or have superpowers, whatever works for you)…
Cut to a montage of you studying, working out and practising martial arts.
I like to listen to Jhene Aiko’s song W.A.Y.S.
It’s not a powerful ‘eye of the tiger’ type of song but it is a grounding affirmation heal-from-the-inside-out type of song.
The chorus repeats ‘you gotta keep going’ and it’s helped me out of dark times in my life.
Related Post: 7 Ways To Develop A Values-Driven Mindset (+ 10 Characteristics)
Step 6: Break the low-energy cycle
Get up and get moving!
No more bedrotting. You have to fight against the voice in your head that tells you to stay under the covers and watch another YouTube Video.
That voice is not your friend.
Here are some things you can do to break your brain fog comfort zone:
- Walk up and down the stairs 10 times
- Have a solo dance party
- Do 20 push-ups
- Do 25 squats or starjumps
- Practice a short yoga flow
- Balance on one leg for as long as possible
- Box breathing
These things will get you moving and shift your mindset towards something fun and exciting.
I’ve been up and down the stairs so many times I’ve lost count. So I can confidently say that this technique helped me reset my brain and gave me a burst of positive energy.
Related Posts: 73 Super Productive Things To Do In A Pomodoro Break
Step 7: Do an impossible-to-fail task
This will get the ball rolling so you can finally achieve the task you’ve been avoiding and stop feeling guilty about procrastinating.
- Pick one task you need to do.
- Then break it down into steps.
- Choose one step to focus on
- Break that down into the SMALLEST possible increments.
- Make it so small that it is impossible for you to fail.
- Do it.
My 3 impossible to fail tasks were to:
- Log in to my laptop
- Open google docs
- Write one word
That’s it.
Doing one of those tasks was a win in my eyes. You want to make sure the task is so small that you feel compelled to complete it.
Here are some examples of bad impossible-to-fail tasks
- Write the introduction of my assignment
- Reply to the email from my manager
- Tidy my room
These are bad because they require a lot of effort and brain power. You want to ease into your tasks so they don’t feel daunting.
Instead of ‘write the introduction’ it could be ‘open the assignment brief’.
Instead of ‘reply to the email from my manager’, it could be ‘open my email inbox’
Instead of ‘tidy my room’, it could be ‘pick one item up from the floor’
Don’t overcomplicate things. Pat yourself on the back when you complete your impossible-to-fail task.
You’ve done one thing towards your goal and that wouldn’t have been possible if you were still stuck in brain fog limbo.
You might end up completing the whole task once you get started.
For example, my one goal was to open Google Docs and now I’ve written over 1500 words.
So, have you managed to get rid of your brain fog now?
I hope you’ve found these tips helpful. I’ve enjoyed being on this journey with you and I can hand-on-my-heart say that my mind has been cleared.
This blog post is proof that these tips work!
Before I wrote this article, I was feeling lethargic, demotivated and a lot of shame.
I kept thinking ‘Why can’t I just get things done?’ and ‘Why do I keep self-sabotaging?’
But I chipped away despite those thoughts.
And hopefully, together we have:
- Reconnected with our values and goals
- Spoke life into ourselves with affirmations
- Disconnected from social media
- Brain dumped all our worries
- Got inspired by our favourite songs
- Pumped some positive energy into our body
- Did an impossible-to-fail task
Well done!
Which of these tips will help you the most? Let me know in the comments, and don’t forget to share this post if you found it useful!
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Related Posts:
- 123 Affirmations For Growth Mindset and Success
- 7 Ways To Develop A Values-Driven Mindset (+ 10 Characteristics)
- 5 Quick Procrastination Hacks You Can Try Right Now
- 5 Signs You’re Secretly Procrastinating and What To Do About It
- Fear of Failure vs Fear of Success: Which One Is Sabotaging You?
- 73 Super Productive Things To Do In A Pomodoro Break
- How To Fail Fast And Become Unrecognizably Successful
- I Switched from an A5 to an A6 Bullet Journal and Here’s What Happened
- Feel More Organised by Monday with This Weekly Planning Routine