January is a great time to declutter. Christmas can sometimes feel like too much: too much to do, too much food, too much stuff. The excess can be enough to make you forget what’s important to you.

So in the quiet that befalls January, I’m looking at what’s around me—both in terms of space and time—and taking stock. I’m identifying the clutter and paring it down. In the few days since I’ve begun this process, I’ve felt a lot better.

Clutter, in no matter what form, can sap your energy. Physical clutter can leave you feeling tense and distracted. The distraction bleeds over into your work life, sapping your productivity. Mental clutter occurs when there’s too much on your plate. The frustration of not getting it all done drains your energy further, creating an ever-more-vicious cycle.

The way out of both situations? Paring down.

Physical Clutter

I know how hard it is to get rid of old Christmas cards, clothes you haven’t worn in two years, and college textbooks you haven’t looked at since graduating. I’m not a minimalist, although I use some of the principles taught by minimalists when deciding what to keep or whether I really need to buy something new. But I always feel better about my surroundings after decluttering, and I bet you will, too.

Here are a few quick tips to help you get rid of physical clutter:

• Define what’s important to you now. We often have a habit of accumulating things that may have been important a few years back but aren’t as essential to our present lives.
• Scan paper items such as Christmas cards or kids’ drawings into your computer, and recycle the paper versions. You can still have a copy of the item without it having to take up physical space in your house.
• Go through your hard drive and delete files that you no longer need. Organize files so that you can easily find what you’re looking for.
• Declutter in small chunks. If you try to declutter your entire home in one afternoon, you’ll become overwhelmed and give up on the process.

Mental Clutter

Although no one else can see your mental clutter, it can hurt your productivity just as badly as physical clutter can. Having too many things on your plate can make it hard to relax, because even when you do allow yourself downtime, you’ll feel guilty for not working on one of your many projects.

Here are some ideas to help with mental clutter:

• Prioritize. Which of your current activities are most important to you in the short term? How about the long term? Are you involved in any kind of activity that you no longer feel as committed to as you felt a few years ago? Find a way to either phase it out of your life or dial down your commitment level.
• Think about what you like as opposed to what you love. {Hat tip to Jon Acuff for this idea, which he discusses in his book Quitter.} We all like watching TV or surfing the Internet, but unless you want to be a TV producer or social media expert, you probably don’t love doing those things. Cut out what you like doing so that you can do more of what you love.
• Block out long chunks of time for projects in which you need to concentrate, such as creating art or writing. Don’t check e-mail or answer the phone during these times. Also, block out chunks of time for relaxing, catching up with friends, exercising, or following your religious or spiritual practice—it’s all too easy to forget that you need time for these things too, even when you’ve got a lot on your plate.

Once you declutter, you’ll feel better and will often find that you’re a lot more productive than you were before. Try some of the solutions above, and let me know how they worked for you.

Commentopia for today: What other tips, books, and resources have helped you physically or mentally declutter? How has decluttering helped you be more productive? Let me know in the comments.