Peace of Mind Organizing

Clear space, clear head

19 October 2012

Over the past week, I let my office get a little out of control. Getting ready to travel for a long weekend, I had stopped clearing my desk off each night. My early-morning pre-flight preparations made things worse. And when I got home from the trip on Monday afternoon, I worried about catching up with email, not cleaning things up.

By yesterday, I was actively avoiding my office. After a day away from home, I chose to work at my dining room table rather than take my laptop to my desk.

So this morning, the first thing I did when I took my computer down to my office was to set a timer and start cleaning it up. (Well, the first thing I did was take a couple of damning before pictures, see below.)

I spent 30 minutes on my desk and even got it dusted. I put stuff away, threw stuff away, looked things up that were written on random pieces of paper and really got things straight. I felt much, much better.

Then I focused on the floor of my office. After only 15 minutes of effort (and a couple of minutes vacuuming), things were back in shape.

The psychological benefit of that 45 minutes of work is amazing. Suddenly, I was eager to create a to-do list for the day and tackle it, rather than just feeling overwhelmed. I was even eager to go a little deeper into the straightening-process and do some filing and rethink some storage.

Yesterday, I had trouble thinking of a blog post. Today, I have three, because I found two written on the notepads I went through as I cleaned my desk. (So for once in my life, I may have a backlog!)

Since everybody loves before and after photos, I offer a couple of pairs.

Here’s my desk before I started cleaning it up.

And here it is after only 30 minutes of effort.

Here’s the floor of my office, looking ugly.

And here it is after 15 minutes of picking up, plus a couple of minutes of vacuuming.

If your desk is a mess and your mind feels cluttered, I strongly recommend taking just a few minutes to create some order. I think you’ll find it reaps huge dividends and will make you more productive.

Tagged with: 15 minutes, clean desk, disorder, order

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