clear your desk. you’ll be thankful in the morning.”
a businessman from the philippines once gave me this priceless piece of advice. and i have tried to stay true to his advice whenever possible. so should you.
a new day brings new opportunity and the potential to accomplish something great. walking into an office with yesterday’s work still visible immediately anchors you to the past, tying yesterday’s rope to today’s potential. but a clean desk breeds life, encouragement, and endless possibilities. even if your new day is going to consist of completing yesterday’s project, starting again or reopening the file offers new opportunity and a new way to see a problem or accomplish a task.
is it realistic to clear off your desk EVERY day? probably not. but i bet you can do it this day!
so do yourself a favor – before you leave work today, clear off your desk. you’ll be thankful in the morning.
di says
I do the same with a daily index card. I record what to do, review it in the morning and at night. I erase what has been done and plan for the next day.
It’s much easier to accomplish things little by little than all at once.
Judy says
I did this right as i read it. it took me a whole 10 minutes and will keep me from gathering more clutter:)
Marcia Francois from Organising Queen says
Thanks for your comment on my desk organising post. Today I took that a little further and posted on notebooks!
kirwin says
Like Renia, I’m a stay at home mom, so my “office” is my kitchen. I try to have a clean sink and island before I go to bed every night. It’s much nicer to wake up to.
di says
I leave the dishes from the night before if I have the next morning off from work.
Renia says
I am a stay-at-home- mother and clearing my desk for me means the kitchen is tidy before I go to bed and the living room (all toys put away by the kids before bedtime).
Makes it a lot less depressing to get up at 7am every morning to make lunches when two main areas of the house are tidy :)
di says
We were taught this at an early age as well. All the toys had to put away before my Dad got home from work. Our rooms had to be cleaned on Saturdays before we could go out and play.
Meg from FruWiki says
Gah… have things really gotten so bad that at first glance I thought you were talking about clearing your desk in case you got laid off so it’d be easy to recover your stuff? When did I become so pessimistic?!
But yes, it is a good rule of thumb. I work from home and try to always have the coffee table cleared off before going to bed. It feels so nice to go to work and not have to fight the clutter. I find that my mood is so much better, too.
I’m trying to pick up around the house every night (as well as throughout the day). Now that my husband and I have minimized things a bit, it’s much easier and quicker. I don’t get it all done all the time, especially when it comes to dishes, but it’s still a vast improvement over how things used to be.
di says
It’s important not to leave things at work. When I was injured and couldn’t work, my supervisor threw out all my belongings, which included detailed information about how to do my job.