Importance of Having a Clean Desk and Workspace
by Every morning you wake up. You look over at your desk and notice that the ashtray is overflowing again and the curdled milk from last weeks cereal is starting to smell. You grab some coffee and make a little room to put down your cup. You start your daily grind. Churning out articles, editing photos, designing websites, making graphics, editing video. You know, freelancing.
One of the biggest losses of productivity is a messy desk. It distracts you visually. As you begin working you can easily get pulled in by all the trinkets and papers to fiddle with. Your attention will be drawn to the colors and objects on your desk. Get rid of the clutter.
Don’t just move the clutter from your desk to your cabinet though, because next time you’re looking for something, the clutter will end up on your desk. Get rid of what you don’t need. Make folders for things you do and create a color coding system to easily find what you need, without having to drag out a ton of papers.
The best way to avoid future clutter is to not allow any room for clutter. Keep your working materials on your desktop and only those. Get into the habit of filing everything else you don’t need immediately and throwing everything else away. Don’t become a pack rat. Make sure at the end of every day you spend 2-3 minutes cleaning your workspace. It will save hours of time in the long run weather you work from home or in an office.
These steps are designed to keep you focused so you can spend less time “working” and more time enjoying life. A messy desk can take up to an hour of time away a day. Between looking for what you need and being distracted, thats an extra 30 hours a month you gain from having a clean desk.
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