How To Clear Out Mental Clutter And Get Your Team Back to Basics

Read Time: 4 minutes.

Over the last 20 years, Mar and I have moved our family a half-dozen times.

Some of that is the natural coming-of-age migration from the city to the suburbs. Some of that is a slight obsession with tangible renovation projects to offset intangible knowledge work that makes up most of our days. Some of that is nothing more than loving where we live.

And one thing we wonder every time we move:

"Where did all this crap come from?"

We tend to live pretty lightly. We prefer experiences over stuff. We have an allergy to tchotchkes and clutter.

And yet, it accumulates.

I see the same thing happening in business.

Despite all the talk of staying lean and agile, “stuff” tends to accumulate. Each mediocre meeting, each process step in the name of problem avoidance, and each report that outlived its useful life, they all build up like barnacles on the hull of a boat.

The only way to reduce the drag is to do the hard work of stripping things back to basics. It's to courageously clear out the mental clutter and refocus on what matters.

If I'm being honest, our business needed some spring cleaning.

On one hand, our business is thriving. We continue to grow and impact more leaders every day.

On the other hand, the business felt heavier than it had before. Activities that brought us joy were becoming a grind.

On a walk last week, Mar asked me, "How would you help the CEOs you work with if they came to you with our problem?"

"Well, I'd start by stepping back and diagnosing the current situation. What's true? What's changed? What's working? What's broken? If we didn't have the data to do this credibly, I'd ensure they got it fast.

We'd use that to reset the priorities. Realign resources to that reality. Eat the sunk costs on failed projects. Refocus on what matters.

Then I'd make sure they operationalized this change. Clear out wasteful meetings. Optimize the cadence of operating the business for fast, iterative cycles supported by mutual accountability.

And numbers. Everyone would have one and know why it matters. They'd be able to connect their activities to making that number improve. And they’d use it to defend against distraction."

She looked at me and grinned.

"We only like to preach what we practice, why don't we do that?"

And with that, we went back to basics.

Here's how you can too.

Diagnose the Current State

Start with brutal honesty. This isn't about blame, it's about clarity.

Ask yourself:

• What's actually working? (Not what you wish was working)

• What's changed since things felt lighter?

• Where are you creating complexity to avoid hard decisions?

The goal isn't just to identify what to keep, stop, or start. It's understand why things drifted so you can prevent the next accumulation.

Resources: Quarterly Business Review and Diagnosing to Root Cause

Reset Your "Rocks"

We use EOS rocks for prioritization, but the system matters less than the discipline.

Three rules:

• Make it specific and measurable

• Keep the list short (err on too little vs. too much)

• Tighten your horizon (we moved from 90 to 30-day cycles)

Opt to do half as much twice as well. And twice as fast.

Resources: Saying No with Finesse and Making Better Decisions

Implement Minimum Viable Accountability

We use "Called Shots." We select no more than 5 daily commitments each morning. We write them down.

The framework is simple:

• We write them down

• We schedule them

• We try to use AI

• We complete it

And if we don’t, we make a note explaining why.

Weekly debriefs turn misses into lessons and inform next week's commitments.

Resources: Called Shots and My Mutual Accountably Framework 

Commit to Moving One Number

This was our hardest step. And the most valuable.

The discipline of choosing one metric for each of us that matters most:

• Prevents shiny-object syndrome

• Forces clarity about what drives value

• Makes progress (or lack of it) visible daily

Key Question: If you had to pick one number to move this month, what would it be? Why aren't you already tracking it daily?

Resources: Measure What Matters and Manufacture Focus

Here's what we learned: The heaviness doesn't come from having too much to do.
It comes from doing too much that doesn't matter.

Getting back to basics isn't about doing less.
It's about creating space to do what matters most.

We love to hear leaders. Hit reply and let me know if you’re using any of the above.

What You Missed This Week

Our Wednesday AM posts:

📌 (Un)Training Mangers (Dave on LI)
📌  Underrated Habits of the Top 1% (Mar on LI)
📌 17 Signs of a Must-Hire Candidate (Dave on X)

And here are our most popular posts last week:

1. 7 Subtle Signs Your Best People Are About to Quit (Dave on LI)

2. Leadership Habit Hiding in Plain Sight (Mar on LI)

3. The 5 Pillars of Leadership (Dave on X)

Our goal is to build a community of 1 million thoughtful, curious leaders.

You can help us by sharing anything that resonates with you.  

Thank you for reading. Appreciate you!

Dave & Mar