Is your office looking cluttered? Take a quick glance around.
Are there any papers strewn haphazardly? Bills that need to be paid? Maybe an old keyboard gathering dust to one side.
If you have some excess items strewn about, time to clean them up. It is good for your brain and your productivity to have a clean workspace and here’s why.
Stay at Tough Tasks Longer
Researchers at Harvard experimented and found that people are likely to work almost 50% longer on a difficult task in at a clean workspace as opposed to a cluttered one.
Why is this?
It is likely related to two things.
First, we can be easily visually distracted. The clutter creates visual stimulus that disrupts our concentration. But on top of that, often the clutter represents unfinished tasks or decisions that we have put off.
These unresolved decisions are weighing on our brains. They are keeping us from doing our best at our valuable work.
Be Less Stressed
All the clutter is causing you some stress. Even if you don’t realize it.
Your workspace needs to be curated to be enjoyable to work in. If its a mess, you might actually be unconsciously avoiding it. Both because of the visual stress caused by the mess but also the decisions and mental effort it represents.
Cleaning up your workspace will lower your stress.
Clean Office Tips
If your clutter is mostly papers, get a scanner and go digital. Scanners can be quite compact. For many of your papers you could probably snap a picture with your phone. A paper shredder might be useful too.
Grab any pens, pencils, stylus and markers and toss them in an unused coffee mug. Cheap but effective organizational tool.
Are your cables and cords all over the place? Invest in some form of cable management. Zip ties can do the trick. There are also handy Velcro straps that are a little more reusable.
Food, cups, and food wrappers? Put it in the trash.
Don’t forget to dust and wipe down your desk when you’re done. Get a can of compressed air for the keyboard.
When you’re done, we can talk about cleaning up any clutter you have in your mind.