What To Do If You Are Clumsy: Ways To Control Clumsiness

Clumsiness – most people who struggle with this tend to overthink its importance. Nonetheless, constantly dropping things, tripping over something that seemed impossible to miss or doing anything similar can get pretty annoying. If you’re clumsy and you’re getting frustrated because of it, take a pause and calm yourself down.

Rest assured that being clumsy is usually not that serious. Still, there are things that can be done to deal with clumsiness so you can decrease or possibly eliminate the effects it may have on your life.

How to stop being too clumsy

Here are some ways to stop being clumsy.

1. Rule out a medical reason

This one is very important. If you struggle with clumsiness it is important to speak to a medical professional who can help you rule out any medical reasons. This is true no matter what but it is especially true if you have other physical or mental symptoms that appear in tandem with clumsiness.

Start with a medical check-up and then move into other ways to deal with clumsiness. It is important to address any health issue that causes clumsiness if this is the reason. If you were able to eliminate the chance of it being a medical problem then go ahead and move on to the other tips here.

2. Care for your eyes (train them and rest them)

The eyes are a major source of information regarding what is in the world around us. Bumping into something, for example, is often because you didn’t see that thing. Now, that could’ve been due to a lack of attention (which is discussed here later) or because you actually failed to see it. 

A good first step for addressing clumsiness is to make sure your vision is healthy. You might need glasses or maybe there is something else going on. If not, try doing eye exercises. Do these in moderation because they could potentially strain your eyes and/or give you headaches. What you can do is look slowly from left to right (follow your finger). You could also try looking at something in the distance (not too far). If you spend most of your day looking at close objects, try spending a 20 minutes in the day looking at something 20 ft (about 6 meters) away.

Also important is making sure your eyes are well cared for. Try to minimize screen time and the amount of time you look at nearby objects. Making sure you use your eyes carefully is important to help them be the best they can be. Close your eyes for a few minutes in the day. Remember to blink (some people go long periods of time forgetting this). Do a few long blinks here and there. You can try gently rubbing your eyes (key word: gently). A big one; make sure you sleep enough!

3. Practice hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills

Clumsiness is poor hand-eye coordination a majority of the time. This is something that can be trained. You don’t need to become a professional overnight but you can do some helpful training. Do something like taking a few shots at a basketball net or tossing a small ball into a cup for hand-eye coordination. Try knitting, playing video games or typing accurately for a few minutes a day. These activities utilize fine motor skills which can decrease clumsiness if improved.

4. Do physical training (strength, speed, balance & flexibility)

Training yourself physically can be a way to build hand-eye coordination skills but it’s also important in its own way. Physical training can help you build the strength you need in order to reduce clumsiness. Working your speed can help with hand-eye coordination and being able to quickly maneuver situations. Training your balance can help you avoid falling over or tripping around if this is something you struggle with insofar as clumsiness. All-round physical fitness can help you make major improvements in terms of becoming less clumsy.

5. Rest your mind & body (sleep enough)

Fatigue and/or mental or physical tiredness can itself be a cause for clumsiness. A tired body is more likely to lose control, lose its grip, trip, lose balance, etc. A tired mind is more likely to lose focus and not be able to adequately move the body in ways that it needs to. Resting the mind and body are crucial for minimizing clumsy incidents.

6. Focus

Sometimes something as simple as focusing can help decrease or even eliminate silly mistakes. Losing focus, on the other hand, can cause mistakes. What you can do here is simply concentrate more when you do something. If you have something in your hand, focus on it. Always be aware of your surroundings, where you’re walking, where you’re going, what you’re doing, etc.

If you struggle to focus you may need to look deeper into this. However, one strategy you can consider is practicing how to focus. Think of it like exercise; training a muscle makes it stronger. Well, training your focus can make it better as well. Practice concentrating on tasks, play games which require concentration or read very attentively a few minutes in a day.

7. Take it easy!

This has two meanings. First, take it easy on yourself if you’re clumsy. Getting flustered due to repeated mistakes can just end up making you more clumsy. Secondly, don’t stress yourself out too much about anything. When you are preoccupied with unimportant matters you could mess yourself up. Learn relaxation techniques and just take it easy.