I'm a neurosurgeon. Here are 3 ways to give your brain a 'spring cleaning' to boost happiness and productivity while social distancing.

Mark McLaughlin.Courtesy of Mark McLaughlin

• Dr. Mark McLaughlin practices neurological surgery at Princeton Brain, Spine, and Sports Medicine; he is the author of "Cognitive Dominance: A Brain Surgeon's Quest to Out-Think Fear."
• While you have time at home, spend it organizing your environment and improving your brain health.
• He recommended clearing your email inbox, decluttering your home in small bits, and setting up a library.
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What's the most valuable real estate you own? Your condo? That getaway in the woods?

Wrong. Your most valuable piece of property sits between your ears. Your teeming brain and the thoughts it contains govern everything you do.

Do you take care of it? Have you done any renovations or preventative maintenance recently?

During the enforced calm of the COVID-19 lockdown, why not take a moment and practice a productive pause. Heck, if we take the time to organize our garages, imagine how good it would feel if we did the same for our minds?

Consider this a quick tutorial for a spring cleaning of your brain. Think about all of the stuff you could discard or organize in your mind and workspace that would make you feel more efficient. What could streamline your environment so that your brain could work in a more focused way?

Here are three common physical areas that you control and can declutter, freeing up a lot of your mind's RAM.