Take a look at your working desk for a moment and ask yourself – Does it really look like a Work Space? Or is it a mess that pulls you back from writing a new post every time you get that urge to kick up your blog? What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) is not just a feature of modern technology and advanced interfaces – It holds true in your everyday life as well. If you’ll see clutter then the ideas and thoughts that you get will be cluttered too.
When I built over 180 RSS subscribers in 21 days of inactivity and then a long recent gap that I took from posting at Inspirit blog- I sometimes had a few minutes to spare when I could sit down, think and write. During all this time, my mom was here – I live in a one room set (rented accommodation) in Chandigarh, so I had to keep a few things on my computer table. And you’d have to believe me, when I sat down to write I just could not focus on the screen with all those books and pens lying on the table along with the keys, the basic telephone and 2 cell phones. I just scribbled in a .txt all that I planned to write about… but didn’t write at all!
I talked to a few friends and fellow-bloggers (Thanks: Anju, Amit and Anshul@Sportscape) about how they maintain their workspace and how do they like to have it. No one likes clutter (that is pretty obvious) but out of laziness, tiredness or any reason, “crap” gathers over time. I have prepared a list of following for the following reasons:
- Distraction
It distracts you from your work. If you’re writing for your blog- you’d find it hard to gather ideas and organize them. Visual clutter causes confusion, brings in inefficiency and results in thought-draining.
- Wastage of Space
If you didn’t have that load of files, books, potato chip bags on your table, you could mount your speakers right there and enjoy soft music when working (or whatever is your taste) – When I cleaned all the mess from my own table, I placed the speakers on my table for a good acoustic experience, a study lamp for my late night sessions so that I can see the keyboard and not disturb my brother sleeping in the same room, the telephone and important project files. So you see how much valuable space the clutter was covering that later became so productive.
- Wastage of Time
Okay, you don’t like clutter, but somehow it is there all over your workspace. You start cleaning it once and realize how much time and muscle you could have saved if you didn’t have it in the first place.
- Wastage of Equipment
I remember how my cell phone got screwed up once when mom accidentally spilled my cup of coffee onto it. The cup was right on the table when the DSL connection wasn’t working and I was mobile-tweeting. The IC’s got short-circuited. Servicing cost me a little over 750 INR.
- Hazardous
Do you realize what kind of irreparable loss those power cables running all over the workspace can cause in case of a mishap. Why not keep the all organized and tied up behind the table? Always take care that cords, etc are out of children’s reach and that they don’t come in your pet’s way. Also take care that you do no keep the switchboards and extension boards on the floor. They might be hazardous as they can give fatal shocks, when someone sweeps the floor clean.
- Organization and Easy Access
Cleaner workspace allows you to have easy access to your notepad, task scheduler, or such important files that you may need to look up frequently. If someone calls you up seeking some kind of information, you’ll be able to find it within a few seconds only if your workspace is clean.
These are reasons enough to find some time on a good day and clear your workspace of all kinds of unnecessary stuff. This will help you enhance your productivity, efficiency of work, will make writing tasks easier with no distractions and fresh uncluttered ideas. I clean my workspace once every 3 days. It is a healthy practice, and if you do it regularly – not much of a pain.
How is your workspace like? How often do you clean it? How does the visual clutter affect you and your productivity?
Drop in your comments and share.
I dont like neat and clean workspace (sounds weird hun?) but some how i feel like am not doing anything and unoccupied when i see no paper mess around my desk all those papers pen and other office stationary make me feel i am working on something even i am not.
but i feel other way when my wife clean all junk out of my desk
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A workspace can be clean even with all your important files and stationary. In fact, I like to have all such stuff in easy reach so if a friend, teacher or an employer calls me up to ask for some kind of information – I have it right on my desk – BUT for me, all this should be very organized and neatly placed.
Abhinav, you sound like the little voice inside my head that’s been getting louder and louder in recent weeks – “This workspace needs to be de-cluttered!” lol
I think that perhaps we North Americans tend to take space for granted, and don’t value a spare and tidy and ordered environment as much as we value all the ‘stuff’ that we seem to collect around us. Your post will be taken as a hint about how I should spend part of this upcoming weekend!
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I believe they’ll positively work for you 🙂
nice list, thanks for sharing.
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I have a sort of an OCD when it comes to clutter. Just cannot live with it. The first thing I do every morning is declutter my living and work area before I do anything else. Having clutter around makes me really restless. I could never work that way.
I am guilty of having a messy workspace even though I have been telling myself to clean it up.