Regain your focus!
My Messy desk 13 May 2010
I’m dreadfully embarrased to admit that this is my desk. I’m usually very neat and strive for a paperless office where possible. My problem is that I’ve lost focus and allowed myself to ignore the problem for too long.
Clutter does not help us remain focussed, instead it drains more of our energy. I looked at my desk yesterday and sighed, turned round and walked out of the office. I just couldn’t face dealing with it. So, instead of gaining clarity by starting the tidy up and dealing with each item, secretly I sat feeling guilty ignoring the problem.
We do this a lot subconsciously, instead of dealing with our problems we hide it away, shut it behind a door, ignore it. Slowly it becomes an unsurmountable problem.
My clutter is work related, personal papers, avon orders, uni assignments and portfolios. It is definitely affecting my productivity and efficiency so this is my task list for today!
1) Put everything away. Regardless of whether it is needed or not, everything is being put away.
2) In line with item 1) I’m making notes about everything I handle. I have a separate pad ready to write down any notes about any “to-do’s” I come across. This is to ensure that later I can deal with everything and not forget!
3) Assign deadlines to the list. I know that I have some things that are easy to do and others that are more urgent and will take more effort. I’m adding dates in order to acknowledge this and I do work better to deadlines.
4) As you can see from the picture I do have adequate filing and storage. If you don’t then this is very important! You will always get clutter until you put systems in place to eliminate it.
5) I’ve also stepped away from some of the non-paid, time stealing stuff. Don’t get me wrong, it’s been hard to do but it’s becoming my place to procrastinate and I need to stop opening that door, so I’ve removed the temptation. At least until I am back focused.
6) Prioritise! Once I’ve got my list I’ll be prioritising the tasks and making sure that clients are looked after, but also that I’ve done work on my business and tidied up loose ends there.
7) Importantly, become accountable! I’ve posted this and the picture on Twitter. I’m holding myself accountable to you all to do it. Pick a friend or colleague and make sure they know what you are doing, will offer you some encouragement and congratulate you at the end. We all respond to praise and it will definitely help you mind set, knowing that someone is going to support you.
I’ll post a picture later so you can compare my efforts and hopefully my challenge today will inspire you to “tidy your desk” and become more focussed!
The Update
Well done for addressing the untidy desk Emily – we are all guilty of it! Good ideas for the future as well on the notepads. I keep three – I have a general one on which I take down phone messages and bits and bobs, I have a ‘To Do Today’ task list which often gets passed on to the next day, but at least it is still there and is prioritised every day, and I have an ideas notepad (with me at all times) for anything that pops into my head or for inspiration I find on the web but haven’t got time to look at properly there and then – it means I always know where that web address or brainwave is stored! Sounds complex but is a very easy and helpful system for me!
Wow, Emily – that is a massive improvement. Great inspiration for many of us. I will commit to the same but have scheduled 4 whole days for working ON the business, including strategy and stuff, but starting with a serious tidy up – an Emily, I think I’ll call it
Great post, and even my very act in reading it is putting off sorting out my own stuff. So I will now step away from the computer and do something productive and focussed so I can say I did this today.
Thanks