You should clean your desk

And why

Photo by Robert Bye on Unsplash

Gosh, isn’t that desk beautiful.

So why doesn’t mine look like that?!

I like to lie and tell myself that my cluttered desk is a sign of my creativity, and that trying to bring structure to the chaos is a foolish endeavor, but I know it isn’t true.

Many offices around the world have something called a “clear desk policy”, and this is as much about productivity as it is about presentation: numerous studies such as this one from the Harvard Business Review have shown that there are very clear benefits to keeping a tidy desk, there’s even a National Clean Your Desk Day on January 14th, and we want to summarize those benefits for you today to help motivate you to clear out your study or work area and enjoy the resultant boost in your output.

Why you should tidy your desk:

Your mess is a reminder … and a distraction — when you’re surrounded by untidiness, you’re forced to think about something different than the task you’re currently working on.

Something as seemingly innocent as an empty, dirty coffee cup can cause your mind to wander off to the kitchen where you could wash it up, or refill it. This might seem like a small thing at first, but when your mind is assaulted by this all day every day, it quickly adds up and…