Some of us live happily in chaos; most of us don’t. Clutter creates a cloggy feeling which drags us down and stunts productivity and creativity.
What is does your desk look like? What are the three words that describe your desk/work area?
If your words are like these: clear, fresh, clean, organised, functional, pretty, tidy then you probably don’t need to read on. Chances are that either you’re not doing any work at all or you are already working efficiently, allowing creativity and energy to flow.
A clear desk makes you want to breathe deeply and approach your day with a fresh mind, a fresh start. It symbolizes organisation and clarity.
Keep it Simple: Less is More
| Less Clutter | More time |
| Less Chaos | More clarity |
| Less Mistakes | More productivity |
| Less Forgotten | More creativity? |
5 Steps to a Clutter Free Desk
1) Schedule a date in your diary. Clutter Free Desk Day. Make sure you really give it importance and give yourself enough time to really get stuck in. Take the time out to have a good clean, clear-out and organisational session.
2) How would you like your desk to be? Take a few minutes to create a vision of how you want to work and how you need your desk to be to support your vision. What do you need on your desk? What would you like on your desk? How do you want to feel when you sit at your desk? Is it in the right place for you? Perhaps you even need a new one. Do you have everything you need to support you in your work? Do you need to buy anything that would make your job easier and more streamlined … another filling cabinet, a pen holder, a new stapler? Do you want to work to music?
3) Develop a system for dealing with your paperwork. A good system for keeping a clear desk that I use was developed by Mark Forster. You only have two trays on your desk. All paperwork that is produced on one day goes into one tray. Everything goes in there: notes, lists, memos, receipts, invoices, newspaper articles, the post, everything!
The following day you focus on that tray and ‘deal’ with everything in it. That could mean a whole host of things depending on what the items are: diarising, filling, delegating, or even actioning for that day. Meanwhile anything that is coming in that day goes into the other tray to be dealt with the next day.
4) Go for it! On your scheduled day, possibly armed with new items (maybe even a new desk) create a working environment that pleases you, that makes you enjoy sitting and working at your desk. Clean and polish everything! Create an environment which inspires and motivates you, which makes you feel more productive. Throw out all the stuff you will never use or need. Deal with everything that is outstanding.
5) Keep it that way! It will feel so good you will be motivated to keep it that way. Keeping your desk like this help to eliminates stress and chaos. At the end of each work session say to yourself, “When I come back to this desk will my surroundings make me feel inspired and raring to go?” Eventually it becomes a habit to leave things exactly as you want to find them. Enjoy and let me know how you get on.
Keep it simple: less is more!
www.beclutterfree.co.uk
