How an Organize and Clean Space Promotes Productivity

There’s no doubt that an organized and clean space promotes productivity. Tidying up the spaces or areas where we work directly affects our creativity and productivity.

It could either boost our productivity or create mental barriers that could affect the way we do things.

Most of us spend around eight hours in our workspaces or offices, which is way more than any time we spend in a single space in our homes (except for our bedrooms of course).

This is why it’s very important that we exert an effort in making our workspaces conducive to being an area of productivity.

Depending on the type of work that we do, a workspace may vary from person to person. For the usual office worker, it can be the desk assigned to you where you do most of your work.

For the digital nomad who is frequently traveling, it can be the rental co-working space that they use and their laptop.

And for the arts and craftspeople, it can be their garage or the dedicated room where they produce their art.

It does not matter what or where your workspace is. The important thing to bear in mind is that you can adjust, change, and improve your work environment towards making it an optimal space where you can create and execute your ideas to their fullest potential.

If you are still not convinced how an organized and clean space promotes productivity, here are the benefits of tidying up our working space:

Table of Contents

Minimizes Distraction

Is your desk full of papers from who-knows-where?

And those documents are peppered with post-its with handwritten notes on them. Imagine seeing those on a daily basis while you are trying to construct an email for your boss or for a very important client.

It’ll be very difficult to do so, right?

This is because your eyes keep on seeing these documents and your brain keeps on thinking about what to do with them thus disturbing your focus from the current task on hand.

If you remove all those clutter, you will be able to retain laser focus on the task at hand and prevent you from committing avoidable mistakes and errors.

Bonus Tips:

1. Get an incoming and outgoing tray. The incoming tray can be used for documents that need your attention and the outgoing tray can be used for those that you have finished reviewing and responding to already.

2. Get folders and create labels based on urgency, or whatever category makes sense for you.

3. Depending on your document retention policy, shred all documents that exceed the timeline (create digital backups if needed or required).

4. Keep archived documents inside your drawers and not on your desk.

5. Follow the same formula for your desktop or laptop and arrange everything using desktop folders.

Promotes Professionalism and Boosts Team Morale

An organized and clean space promotes productivity and it also says a lot about the person using it.

It is a visual signal that says this person is organized and professional.

Imagine your boss or your boss’s boss walking up to your desk and see that not only you meet and exceed the targets and goals set for you, but you also have a clean and organize desk.

It will give them the impression that you are always on top of things and that they can rely on you when it comes to helping them achieve the overall goals of the team.

If your colleague or someone new in your team walks up to you and sees that you have a clean desk, they will think that if you could deliver the results while maintaining a clean desk, maybe they could do the same too.

You will be able to help create a team culture that promotes organization and cleanliness without sacrificing results.

Promotes Laser Focus

If you have a clean and organize workspace, you can retain your focus on the task at hand and avoid committing mistakes or errors that often result in re-doing things.

Your mind will not wander off to various undone tasks because they are basically out of your sight.

Bonus Tip:

To prevent you from forgetting the other tasks that need to be done within the day, you may employ the use of your desktop/laptop calendars or set an alarm using your phone.

You can also write down all the tasks that need to be done within the day using your old but ever-reliable notebook to make sure that you finish everything on time while keeping your desk clean and organized.

Saves You Time

If you have a clean and organize workspace, you will know where to find your stapler, your scissors, the documents that you need to have to sign, etc.

In my previous jobs, I noticed that a lot of my colleagues waste time in finding things only to find them buried underneath all those papers on their desks.

This is also the same for your digital files. You can organize them and delete unnecessary files to prevent your desktop/laptop from being cluttered.

Bonus Tips:

1. Avoid using your office laptops for personal use. If you do not have a personal laptop or desktop at home, create a folder on your work laptop. Label it as personal and this will be the only folder where you could save and store personal files.

2. Create a Table of Contents on your desktop using Microsoft Excel. List down all the files that you use and hyperlink them to the respective files. This will make finding files so much easier.

Reduces Stress

Organizing your workspace will not only save you time but will also reduce and remove unnecessary stress.

I remember when I was new at work, I didn’t have that much experience and techniques in organizing my work stuff. I always end up late and nervously rushing to a meeting. And it’s all because I could not find the needed document that I had to present.

I could have simply avoided that situation if I organized my papers and my files.