I know you’ve been putting it off, you’re letting it get worse.
That it’s okay though, you’re not a terrible person for letting get as bad as it has, and you have what it takes to get it done.
I’m attempting todo off the bat is help you identify what that thing is that’s bothering you. I can’t help with that because I don’t know exactly what it is, but at least now you know what your primary focus should be.
However, I can help you get inspired to clean and organize your desk! That alone can reduce a significant amount of anxiety, which can help with whatever you identified in the previous paragraph. By designing your environment then keeping it orderly and clean your brain will be allowed to destress.
Already have an organized desk? Fucked yeah! I’m proud of you, you’re my kind of people, however, I hope you stick with me because I may have one suggestion you could use to improve your already miraculous system.
Okay, back to all you messy deskers out there, here’s where we start. Take everything off, not your clothes, unless you’re alone at home then I guess do whatever you want, but make sure you take everything off of your desk.
Once you’ve done that, sit with it for a second. How’s it feel? Clean right? But also a bit empty, so we need to start adding things back on. Start with the monitor, then add your keyboard and mouse. Then your little desk items like plants and pictures, and lastly your pens and papers. Now when you’re doing this Make sure everything is parallel.
Before moving forward here are a few questions to ask yourself about your workspace.
“Why does my desk get messy?”
This question should be used to help you identify where the problem areas are, and what leads to the messiness so you can take preventative measures to avoid any clutter on the desk in the future.
For me, why my desk gets messy it is because I throw my receipts on it to file later then I wait weeks to file them. Thus, my desk gets cluttered and then feels cramped and messy.
Once you’ve identified why; ask:
“What if I did X?”
-What if I didn’t allow myself to let receipts pile up?
-What if I created a filing system so that the receipts look organized and clean on my desk?
-What if I hire an assistant to file my receipts so they never come home with me?
This is all about brainstorming solutions.
Once you’ve Identified some ‘what if’s’; ask:
“How can I do x?”
-How can I create a file system for my receipts using only what’s in my apartment right now?
I decided to go with the second choice because it’s economically efficient and in line with my true habits.
One of my favorite things to do is use materials only immediately available to me in my apartment to create a functional prototype. It’s challenging and creates constraints which end up leading me to interesting, unique solutions.
I oddly have some PVC pipe laying around that will work perfectly for this. So to create the filling system I’m going to cut the PVC down into 5 short pieces. Each piece will hold a receipt from a different debit card transaction.
Anyhow, you’ve asked yourself these questions, you hopefully have a more clear direction of what needs to be added to or taken away from the desk. From here you must implement the solutions you came up with to organize and de-clutter your space.
Once you’ve put everything back and have all the new systems in place:
1) Ask yourself how you feel. Do you feel a sense of relief and calmness? Has a bit of your anxiety been reduced since now you can access items more easily and don’t have to search anymore?
2) Use your new systems for a week and see how it works. Identify and note failure points, then after a week or so make the necessary adjustments until you’re at least 95% happy with the desk environment.
To continuously get baby hits of stress reduction just go and sit at your clean and organized desk and appreciate what you did and the order that is elegantly displayed before you.
Want me to help you organize your desk, click that good ole contact button and lets set up a phone call to chat about it. If you clean you desk yourself, share with me on social media at @reliefkey, I’d love to see what you do with this information.
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Here are some product suggestions for desk organization.