Hoarder; that is the most common thought, as soon as someone sees your desktop clutter. While people like Einstein and Mark Twain might have broken the stigma and proved to be geniuses, it might not hold true in today’s digital era. Gone are the days when people used to see a messy workspace as a sign of intelligence.
Time is a precious asset, and time management is an essential element required to be productive. However, what happens when you end up spending countless minutes, just looking for a piece of paper within piles of hapless clutter? You end up stressed, frustrated, and irritated, all because you did not take the time to organize your personal or professional workspace.
ORGANIZING YOUR WORKSPACE
Psychologists firmly believe that people tend to pile up their belongings, in order to fill up a void in their emotional stages. Add a cluttered home or office to the list, and you can just about imagine the damage you are indirectly inflicting on your mental state.
At a time when the world is ruled by digital technology, the need to deal with endless piles of paper and other irrelevant clutter seems moot. In order to be productive, you need to be organized, which will help you work with a clear mindset.
BENEFITS OF BEING A MINIMALIST
Now that you have taken the first step in decluttering your life, it is important to understand the benefits of taking this crucial step.
Lesser distraction
When you have a minimalist desk, say a standing desk, chances are you will tend to find things in the right place, at the right time. Standing desks can go a long way in helping you stay organized without putting in a lot of effort to put things here and there.
Simply put, unnecessary things, which have made their way onto your desk and workspace, can cause a lot of distraction, as you spend endless hours looking for the things you need. When having a simple minimalist home office with everything in its rightful place, you don’t need to worry about making space for yourself, before starting your day.
Clutter is synonymous to reduced creativity
There is a reason why there is a national “clean off your desk day”. Motivation is directly linked to a clean workspace, which means that lots of people draw inspiration from a clean area. However, when clutter and piled up things take up your immediate space, you might end up feeling stifled and short of creative ideas thereby leading to a loss of attention and productivity.
Relieve that extra stress by putting everything where it should be
With stress being the keyword here, just think about the mental frustration and physical fatigue levels you end up with, while trying to find a piece of paper which you need today but can’t seem to find. Just the thought of spending endless hours looking for a harmless piece of paper can be daunting, isn’t it? But what if this piece of paper was filed in a cabinet, just waiting to be used, whenever there was a need? Sounds so much more convenient, doesn’t it?
GETTING THE JOB DONE RIGHT
Considering the above benefits (which are just the tip of the iceberg), the main point is, how do you achieve this simple, fruitful goal? It’s rather simple; you just follow these easy to do steps and you would be ready to progress on a new path of minimizing and organizing your personal minimalist work desk.
Create a method of differentiation
When you are dealing with papers, differentiation is the key. There are different ways of differentiation, depending on the kind of papers and files you are dealing with. Classify everything as per its nature, importance and anything else you might feel relevant. This way, when you need to find something the next time around, you know where to look for what.
Classify as per its complexity and priority
Every piece of work has a separate complexity and priority attached to it. Ask yourself, can this be another way to categorize and separate the urgent to-dos from the not so urgent to-dos? Well, if you answered in a yes, then you already have a ready decluttering method on your hands.
Using the shredder to throw away non-relevant papers and files
When you are done with a task, you need to get rid of the non-relevant papers and files at the earliest to turn your desk in to a desk of a true minimalist. The lesser you hoard, the better the chances of being organized in the long run. Files, papers, clips etc accumulate over a period, especially when you don’t do away with things which are of no value to you after a certain time. Think of what minimalist office accessories you need on a regular basis and get rid of all the rest, which is just occupying your desk’s space. Declutter and see the difference, as your life begins to take a turn suddenly.
FAQs
- How to have a minimalist desk?
The first and only way to have a minimalist desk is to declutter your workspace and avoid accumulating unnecessary and unorganized things on your desk.
- How to create a minimalist home office setup?
Firstly, classify all papers by importance and relevance and throw away everything you don’t need anymore. Then, minimize the number of stationery on your desk and keep what you use regularly.
A Final Word
Managing your desk does not have to be a task; it can be a fun activity, if you make it a habit. A clean workspace invokes positive thoughts, which eventually lead to enhanced productivity and better working habits.
