Clear Desk, Clear Mind
Everyone has their own working from home routines more or less in place. Some of us have found this period to be more productive. Others find the balance between the workspace and personal space difficult to separate. Concentration and focus can be easily broken if where we work is not maintained effectively.
We’ve come up with some tips to help you keep a clean desk policy for working from home. They help restore a balance between our work and our home life and ultimately feel positive about our environment and productive with our time.
It’s so easy for our desk or workspace at home to become cluttered with household items: plates, bowls, glasses, mugs, toys, smartphones; the list goes on. Each thing can cause a distraction and reduce the amount of focussed time where we are at our most productive.
First piece of advice is eat somewhere else - not at your desk or workspace. However long you allocate for lunch at home (we recommend 30-60 minutes) make sure you mentally switch off, get some fresh air and recharge. Productivity in the afternoon is scientifically proven to be far more when we do this and it’s good for the mind to recover from a busy morning.
Next, keep your files, folders, notepads etc. neat and tidy too. Keep them stored in a desk organiser or draw when you don’t need them and begin and end each day by bringing them out and putting them away in their place. This routine prepares our mind to begin and end work and separate personal time by tidying up.
We also recommend writing down your goals and expectations for the day in the morning and reviewing them before you clock out. It’s an excellent exercise that helps us feel good about our achievements and reduce stressing about our workload.
Finally, the appearance of your workspace reflects how we work as a whole. If our workspace is covered in paper and notes and stationary everywhere we waste time finding information. The average time people waste on looking for files is up to 2 hours per day in some cases! So only have out what you need to help you work and put it back when you don’t need it. This tip also overlaps to the kitchen FYI, those dirty plates won’t clean themselves!