How to Clear Your Mind: 6 Simple Ways That Actually Help

Some days your head is too full to think straight. Tasks, worries, half-finished conversations and the thing you forgot to reply to, all at once.

You can’t switch that off by trying harder. What works better is giving your mind somewhere else to put things: a page, a list, a slower breath or a walk.

To clear your mind, get what’s in it out of your head: write everything down for five minutes, then pick one thing to do next. Other quick methods include writing tomorrow’s to-do list before bed, breathing out slowly, walking somewhere green and setting aside a fixed time for worrying.

Try it now

Clear your head in a few minutes

How long have you got?

What’s cluttering it?

Write in your own notebook, or on the full-screen page. Nothing you pick or type here is stored or sent anywhere.

Quick takeaways

Writing things down is the fastest way to get them out of your head. Five minutes is enough.
A specific to-do list before bed can help you fall asleep faster, according to a 2018 sleep study.
Slow breathing with a long exhale improved mood in a month-long 2023 study, more than mindfulness meditation did.
A walk in nature reduced rumination compared with an urban walk in a 2015 study.
If a busy mind is affecting your sleep, work or relationships for weeks, talk to a doctor.

What’s the quickest way to clear your mind?

The quickest way to clear your mind is to write everything in it down, in any order, for five minutes. Getting tasks and worries onto paper means you no longer have to hold them in your head. When the timer ends, pick one thing from the page and do it.

This is called a brain dump, and it works because it turns a vague sense of too much into a list you can see. A list has an end. The worry in your head doesn’t. Once it’s on paper, you can sort it: things to do, things to wait on and things to let go.

The brain dump guide has a five-minute timer you can use on the page, and a way to sort what you wrote into four piles afterward.

Five minutes, one page, everything out.

How do you clear your mind before bed?

To clear your mind before bed, write a specific to-do list for the next few days. In a 2018 sleep study, people who wrote a to-do list before bed fell asleep faster than people who wrote about tasks they’d already finished, and the more specific the list, the faster they fell asleep.

The study, by Scullin and colleagues at Baylor University and published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, compared five minutes of writing a to-do list with five minutes of writing about completed tasks. It was a small lab study, so treat it as a promising sign rather than a guarantee. It costs nothing to try.

Make the list specific. “Email Sam about Friday” clears more room than “work stuff.” Leave the notebook by the bed so anything else that surfaces can go straight onto the page.

Can breathing clear your head?

Slow breathing with a long exhale can help. In a 2023 study of 108 people, five minutes a day of “cyclic sighing” (breathing in, topping up with a second small breath, then a long slow exhale) improved mood more than five minutes of mindfulness meditation over 28 days.

The study, by Balban and colleagues in Cell Reports Medicine, compared cyclic sighing, box breathing, fast cyclic hyperventilation and mindfulness meditation. The cyclic sighing group had the largest increase in positive mood, and the difference from the meditation group was significant.

To try it: breathe in through your nose, take a second short breath in on top, then breathe out slowly through your mouth until your lungs feel empty. Repeat for five minutes. It’s a good choice when you’re too wound up to write.

Slow the breath and the water slows around it.

Does walking help clear your mind?

Walking helps, especially somewhere green. In a 2015 study, people who took a 90-minute walk through a natural area reported less rumination, the habit of going over the same negative thoughts, than people who walked through a busy urban area. They also showed reduced activity in a brain area linked to risk for mental illness.

The study, by Bratman and colleagues in PNAS, used a long walk, but the idea scales down. A short walk round a park, without your phone in your hand, gives your attention somewhere else to rest. Write one line when you get back, while the thought is clear.

How do you stop the same thought going round?

To stop a thought looping, give it a set place and time. Write it down in one sentence, note one thing you can do about it, and save any further worrying for a fixed 15 minutes later in the day. When it comes back before then, tell yourself it has a slot.

A few ways to loosen a thought that keeps coming back:

Write it as one sentence. Loops often feel bigger than they are. One sentence shows the actual size.
Split it into two columns: what you can do something about and what you can’t. The Stoics built a whole philosophy on that split, and it still works on paper.
Answer it like a friend. Write the advice you’d give someone else with the same worry.
Book a worry slot. Fifteen minutes at the same time each day, with a notebook. When the thought turns up at another time, jot a word and leave it for the slot.

For a longer daily habit built on clearing out, morning pages are three pages of writing first thing, designed to empty your head before the day starts.

When should you get help with a busy mind?

Get help if racing or looping thoughts last for weeks, keep you awake most nights or get in the way of work, relationships or everyday life. A doctor can check what’s going on and talk through options. Journaling and breathing can help, but they aren’t a substitute for support when things are heavy.

If a busy mind doesn’t settle, or if it comes with feeling low, panicky or hopeless, please talk to someone: your doctor, someone you trust, or one of the services on our support page, linked at the bottom of this page.

For gentler day-to-day support, the self-care journal guide covers a simple routine for checking in with yourself.

How to clear your mind FAQs

How do I clear my mind in 5 minutes?

Set a timer for five minutes and write everything in your head onto paper, in any order. When the timer ends, circle one thing to do next. If you’re too tense to write, spend the five minutes breathing slowly with a long exhale instead.

How do I clear my mind at work?

Keep a notepad next to you and jot down anything that pops into your head, so you can get back to the task in front of you. Between tasks, take two minutes for a short walk or a few slow breaths.

Can you clear your mind completely?

Not really, and you don’t need to. Thoughts keep arriving. The goal is to stop them piling up, by giving them somewhere to go: a page, a list or a set time to deal with them.

Is meditation the best way to clear your mind?

It’s one option. In the 2023 breathing study above, a simple long-exhale breathing practice improved mood more than mindfulness meditation over a month. Writing things down is another quick option that needs no practice at all.