6 Simple Steps to Clear Your Desk
Transcript:
I’ve always been an organized and tidy person even when I was young. I like everything to have its place and piles stress me out! But, like anyone, projects, things I simply can’t forget, and to-do items can create piles faster than my dog in the backyard! Some of you love piles and clutter. You know where everything is in spite of it looking like a tornado just went through your office. But what does the research tell us about clutter?
The Science
Clutter affects your brain’s ability to focus, your sleep, and your anxiety level making you less productive. This creates stress and can trigger junk food cravings. Why all of the stress? Your brain loves organization and is always searching for and creating order. For example, have you ever decided to buy a new car and suddenly see the car you want everywhere?! That’s your brain bringing order to a potential life change. When your brain sees constant clutter or disorganization, it drains your mental energy, distracts, and reduces your working memory, which is like the RAM or temporary memory of a computer. It you keep too many windows open, your RAM gets too full and freezes.
Clutter increases cortisol, the stress hormone. Constant clutter creates what I call “the leaky faucet effect” meaning that your cortisol constantly and consistently drips causing a low-grade fight or flight state mentally and physically. Cortisol isn’t the only hormone released when you’re stressed. Your body dumps a whopping 1400 chemicals into your blood stream when you’re stressed! High cortisol then triggers a blood sugar drop creating sugar and junk food cravings, which then negatively impact your brain and overall health triggering blood sugar spikes, then drops, and more stress and cravings! It’s a vicious cycle.
When I think back to when I was an adolescent, I liked “organized clutter” meaning I had a lot of “treasures” that children collect and each item had its place. As I’ve aged, I’ve learned that less is way better! My eyes can rest on a beautiful piece of art or a special memento and create a moment of rest—a pause in the busyness of life. I feel more present. I’m more content.
Do an experiment (especially for those of you that love clutter). Go to a website that has tons of words and pictures with very little white space. How do you feel? Now go to a website that is clean with strategically placed graphics and white space. How do you feel? Think of your home, office, car, closet and wherever else clutter exists as a place to create white space by organizing and reducing clutter.
Here’s an example of cluttered site you can use: http://www.gatesnfences.com
Here’s an example of a well-designed site: https://deanstreetsociety.com
6 Steps to Clear Your Desk
In celebration of Clear Your Desk Day, let’s target clutter there! Baby steps, right? This is the exact system I used to clear my desk and keep it clear.
Clear your desk. The first step is to remove everything from your desk, including the things you need. Don’t worry. We’ll add some things back. But let’s start with a clean slate.
Organize those items. I usually spread all of the items that were on my desk on the floor of my office. You might have photos, calendars, books, knick-knacks, supplies, food, chargers, and pretty much anything you couldn’t find a home for. Now organize those things in two area of essential and non-essential meaning the essential are for your desk only and things you need to use to conduct business, pay bills, etc. In other words, you might not want to throw those photos away. That’s ok. But out of the five, which ONE do you want on the desk? Can you hang the rest or find a new home for them? What about having the latest family photo and scanning the older ones into a digital frame that hangs on the wall or is located in the living room? And the books? Are they books you’re keeping out to read next so you don’t forget? Ok! Is there a place on your bookshelf where you can create a read next section? Or put the titles in the order you want to read in your phone notes and shelve the books. The main thing is put those things that you don’t want on your desk and the non-essentials aside or elsewhere. Now look at your essentials. Is every item for sure essential?
Use your drawers. I believe everyone should have one junk drawer! Mine is in my kitchen and I love it! It’s the one place where I am free to just throw whatever in there! But occasionally I have to go through and throw out things. The same applies to our desk drawers. Go through each one similar to the top of your desk. Do you have containers for all of your supplies like paper clips, tacks, rubber bands, and pens? If not, write a list of containers you need. I use little glass jars and cheap plastic containers. It doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. Then organize drawers based on objects—a drawer for pens, rubber bands, paper clips, etc. and then one for notepads and maybe one for chargers and other chords. However you want to organize, do it. I also purchased a pretty wooden desktop organizer with slots and drawers for business cards, checkbooks, and all the essentials I use all of the time.
Create a place for reminders. Receipts, shipping return receipts to Amazon, upcoming bills, etc. need a home because they remind us of what we need to keep track of. I have a simple vertical desktop file sorter. I also created an easy way to keep track of bills. I cut a dark brown 8.5 x 11 piece of cardstock into three pieces. I labeled the first one 1-11; second one 12-20, and third 21-31. I then put my bills within those days based on due date with the card stock and hold them together with office clips. I have to say that’s one of my favorite inventions!
Finish your projects. This one is important. If you have too many, this can be an indicator that you need to say “no” more often. Or maybe you need to filter all projects through your goals by asking, “Will this project get me closer or farther away from my goals?” If a project doesn’t get you closer to your goals, don’t start it. I’d definitely not start another big project until you finish current ones or absolutely have to. A good rule of thumb from becomingminimalist.com is that if you can complete the unfinished project in 20 minutes go ahead and complete it right away. If it will take longer, store it. I suggest that you schedule time in your calendar to work on each project in order of importance and be willing to never finish a project that’s just not important.
Do brain dumps. One of the things that can clutter desks are sticky notes and other reminders on empty envelopes, napkins, and anything else you found to write on. I use apps and good old fashioned planners. When I have multiple ideas on one topic, I put it in a note in my phone to keep everything organized. When it’s my to-do’s, I use my Daily Greatness business planner. It’s the best planner I’ve found so far (and that I actually use). I also use my calendar app to remind me of those tasks as needed.
Every once in a while, I realize I’ve bought way too many books or got way too ambitious on projects and need to downsize and organize. Overall, these techniques keep my desk clear 90% of the time!