How Organizing Your Desk Could Bring Your Life Purpose (Really)

How Decluttering Helps You Live Intentionally

If you're following our Setting Meaningful Intentions Workbook and Planner, you might already know what core values you're focusing on in the weeks and months ahead. But did you know that something as simple as clearing off your desk can help you put those fundamental beliefs and principles into practice? 

It's a big claim, but it's one that the research supports. Like everything done with purpose, small changes like organizing your desk can add up to a meaningful life.

Here's how cleaning up your desk can be a powerful life hack for a few core values:

Focus

As weird as this seems, a clean desk can lead to a clear mind. According to Princeton University's Neuroscience Institute, our brains crave order with a ferocity rivaling a late-night desire for tacos. So, when your desk looks like it's been hit by a tornado, it makes sense that your poor brain is working overtime to try to make visual sense. And that's exhausting. 

Luckily, cleaning up a war zone of junk can help you feel more capable at work. In Princeton's study, people who cleared clutter from their workspace became better at focusing, processing info and actually getting stuff done.

Efficiency

Trying to use your resources efficiently? Clean your gosh darn desk. When everything has a place, you can stop pawing through piles for that one report the boss needs now.

And don't forget another huge source of frustration at work: digital clutter. That hot mess of a desktop is costing you time, and maybe a lot of it.  Did you know that hunting for lost documents at work can waste up to two hours a week? That's precious time that you could spend singing the Wicked soundtrack in your head or searching for Pad Thai recipes.

 

Balance

When a long work day leaves your mental battery at 2%, that's suddenly all the time and effort you can devote to your home life. Over time, this imbalance can tear you away from what matters most to you, whether that's spending quality time with your kids or getting Krobus to become your roommate on Stardew Valley.

When you work from home, a messy room can also throw your other healthy habits off balance. A cluttered space can push you to eat junk food and watch TV rather than running that mile or completing your mile-long to-do list. When you look at it like that, taking the time to organize your workspace is a small shift toward a more intentional life.

Simplicity

Imagine walking into your office and seeing only the things you want to see and need to use on your desk. When you lean into the core value of simplicity, reducing the clutter in a single area helps that one thing become less complicated.

Space by space, tidying up means that you're making a conscious choice about what's meaningful to you (and what isn't).

How to Clean Off Your Desk

Now that you know the why behind cleaning off your desk, let's actually do it.

Declutter Your Desk

• Take everything off your workspace for a blank slate.
• Sort your junk into three piles:
  • Keep (I need it, use it, or love it)
  • Toss/Recycle (I don't need it, want it, or know what it is)
  • Donate (Somebody else might need it)

Clean Your Workspace

• Dust, wipe, and sanitize. Your desk deserves a spa day too.
• Don’t skip your keyboard and mouse—they’ve seen things.

Categorize and Contain

• Group your items together. Not sure where to start? We're into Christen Fackler's cousins and coworkers method:
  • Cousins are items that are used in similar (but not exactly the same) ways. For example, your rubber bands, staples and binder clips might live together since they are all fasteners.
  • Coworkers are items that you use together or need in the same area. Keeping your headphones alongside your charger or teaming up pens and sticky notes makes it easy to use them together.
• Wrangle the chaos with some cute trays, bins and cups. Consider using a tray as a drop zone for your phone, keys and wallet, so you can quickly grab them when the clock hits quitting time.

Set Up Your Desk Layout

• Keep everything you use most in a designated spot within reach. Nothing beats reaching for your coffee cup and knowing it will be happily resting on a cork coaster in your favorite pattern.
• Add shelves of hooks to make use of vertical space.

Happy cleaning!