I used to be a major slob! I collected paperwork, piled it into big piles on my desk, in my drawers and if space ran out even on the floor. Usually I knew how to find what I needed pretty easily and fast, but at times it was a real ordeal to find that specific piece of paper. My family still knows me this way, and to be frank sometimes I still work in this fashion…old habits are hard to beat.
At work though, I have turned around completely. It started when I read Getting Things Done
The pile of stuff was overwhelming…but the room was tidy! And I liked that. Fast forward in time, and I have adopted many of the habits of GTD. I’m no star in keeping with the system, but the habit of keeping an empty inbox and of archiving instantly are two I cherish. They keep my desk clean (photos at the end of this post) and my work organized.
Having a clean desk and a tidy office has several major benefits. Here are five of them:
- No visual distractions
A clean desk ensures that there is nothing lying around to distract you. No visible piles of paper with unfinished tasks, no visible magazines that might be interesting, no visible nothing. Just emptiness that helps you to focus on the task at hand. - Usable desk space
The desk is empty and provides ample space to put all the relevant (paper)work in an orderly fashion on the desk. This helps to get the task at hand done with the most convenience. No piles of paper are consuming space and no piles with paper tumble over and fall on the ground. - Easy on the eyes = easy on the mind
A large part of interior design is focused on giving spaces a specific atmosphere. The atmosphere influences people kind of like a mirror. A peaceful space creates a peaceful atmosphere where people feel at ease. A colorful and dynamic space creates a vivid atmosphere and sparks creativity in people. A clean and tidy space creates an atmosphere without distractions and stress and supports people being focused. - Cleaner and more hygienic
Most companies have cleaning services and they are mostly not allowed to move around papers and stuff that’s on a desk. An empty desk is easy to clean and gets cleaned more often. Even if you have to clean it yourself, an empty desk and a tidy office are easier to clean than a messy office and desk. Oh…and don’t forget to clean your keyboard too! - Appearance of great organizational skills
A clean desk and a tidy office bring up the appearance of a person that has things organized smoothly. If you’re able to maintain you office in this state, you must have your business in perfect order. Even if this is only the appearance (I hope not) this already is a benefit when you have people coming in your office, your boss, your subordinates or whomever.
The photos below show how my desk and office look right now, I really enjoy the empty look! That laptop is gone by the way, it was stolen from my car last weekend 
A good reminder of keeping your files on the network (which I did thankfully), or making good back-ups.
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You can be an Original too!
Tom
Thu 2007.11.15
Well, I like it. Not the stolen Laptop, people should respect other peoples property, but the desk. I myself have started to follow the path of a clean desk as well, ‘though old habits are (very) hard to overcome.
@Stephen
Thu 2007.11.15
Good looking desk! I have just set up my new home office in our new house, and my desk is not clean!!
Yikes, I need to get it put together, I know that everything should have a place, but I am still working on sorting that out again. It’s amazing how much stuff can go into your storage receptacles, but you really don’t see it until you have to empty them all out and pack them for moving. You would not believe how much ’stuff’ I got rid of!
Stephan
Sat 2007.11.17
I used to think that a messy desk is my ‘creative feng-shui’. The idea of “Easy on the eyes = easy on the mind” appeals to me a lot.
I will put this to practice at my new home office.
Christine OKelly
Sat 2007.11.17
Wow - what a great looking place! I’m all about getting rid of clutter… but my desk recently has become far too cluttered for my liking! You’ve inspired me… It’s funny, I planned on getting a new glass top desk today to inspire me get rid of the clutter that has collected and keep it off!
Christine
Lodewijkvdb
Sat 2007.11.17
Stephan » Creative Feng-Shui! Great find. I used to have all kinds of explanations too, but I realized they were only excuses. The mess didn’t bring me anything, the benefit of the mess was the time gained by not introducing and maintaining order. But when that benefit is lost totally when you have to look for stuff that you know is there, but you just can’t find it now… One day I decided I was done with the mess. At work it’s OK now, at home I have still some work to do.
Christine » I thought about a glass top desk too for my new home office. But I think I’m not doing it for several reasons. It will help against the mess, but it has some downsides.
1) If you sit at it, there is more to distract you (your own legs, the floor or whatever you see through it)
2) The top gets greasy from your arms when you’re wearing short-sleeved shirts
3) The optical mouse won’t work on the bare surface anymore
Milky white glass might do the trick, but I’m pretty certain that I’m going with a nice wooden surface.
Haga2000
Mon 2007.11.26
Well, whats written here is scientific proven to be wrong, check out this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Mess-Disorder-How-Cluttered-Fly/dp/0316114758
they find that the more messy your office is, the higher is your salery, and that to use time to organise directly reduces time for creativiy
Lodewijkvdb
Mon 2007.11.26
Hi Haga2000.
I know about that book, and the authors did a great job of creating a title that sells. As a disclaimer: I haven’t read it, but I’ve read a lot about it (amongst others the editorial reviews at Amazon) and that made me decide NOT to buy it.
What I learned is that allowing a little mess (or better unpredicted or unorganized things) improves results over a lot of processes. But taken to either extreme, it’s detrimental to the results. So being over-organized (this is what is mainly referred to in the book) is bad for a lot of things, but so is allowing things to get a total mess! Over-organized leads to too much time organizing, under-organized leads to too much time looking for stuff.
In the end, what works best for you is what’s important. I’ve been at the messy side of stuff and it didn’t work for me. I’m on the organized side now, and I have a lot of benefits and no downsides yet. I don’t spend more time organizing then I spent searching, not by far! So this approach works for me.
I’d be interested though to see a similar post, highlighting the benefits of a crammed up desk and a messy office. I know I can’t write one.
…::::The Vada Pav Chronicle::::::…… :: My GTD journery so far :: November :: 2007
Mon 2007.11.26
[…] reading this my next milestone would be to clean my file drawers and table, it may sound like a very simple task […]
Organize Your Life Carnival #18
Wed 2007.12.05
[…] van den Broek presents The benefits of a clean desk and a tidy office posted at How to be an Original, saying, “This is a post about how a former slob discovers […]
Marcia Francois
Thu 2007.12.06
Oooh, I love the clean, uncluttered desk!
John Simpson
Sat 2007.12.08
I can’t believe how clean your desk is. I always thought I was a clean and organized person, but your blog post has inspired me to do better. I am planning on going to work today, and when I get there I know what I will do first. Do you have any posts on making lists, and the problem of constantly making lists but never getting anything done?
Thanks,
John
Steve
Tue 2007.12.11
Wow your desk is clean. I have always had a hard time keeping my work organized. My desk at work is an absolute mess, papers everywhere.
These are some great benefits. I guess it’s time to start cleaning.
Ryan
Tue 2007.12.11
This is one of those tips that I wish I had learned a long time ago.
I don’t have anything to back this up but it seems like when my desk is a mess I’m thinking about how miserable it’s going to be to clean it up rather than thinking about what I’m doing at the moment. It’s sort of like the stack of papers sitting in my inbox or the 2,500 emails that I just moved out of my Outlook inbox. It’s distracting from the task at hand.
And your comment about having room to expand out is a good one. When I’m working on programming or writing I usually have a notepad open. With my desk messy a steno sized pad is all that will fit but if my desk is clean I can have a letter sized pad which suits me better. I have a large graphics tablet that I use for graphic design and photography work and obviously it works much better when it’s not covered with papers.
Totally off topic, but I love the comment preview down below. I can’t believe that more people don’t do that on their blogs. I’m going to have to figure out how to get that working on my site.
Add a preview to your WordPress comment box » Forums Blogs Wikis
Wed 2007.12.12
[…] I was browsing around the blog world and came across this posting on keeping a clean desk. I found the topic interesting enough to leave a comment, but that’s not really the point. […]
Lodewijkvdb
Wed 2007.12.12
Thanks for all the replies! I still love my clean desk
Getting there was definitely harder than keeping it this way, but your continued replies sure help in not slipping!
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Wed 2008.01.30
[…] too has changed in the past year. I set up an archiving system according to the Getting Things Done guidelines and worked my way […]
Clean Desk Policy at The 4-Hour Workweek Journal
Mon 2008.02.04
[…] my office was more of an exercise in entropy than a place to work. After having been inspired by a post in Lodewijk van den Broek’s How to Be an Original blog, I set to work a week ago to rid my […]
Brick Andrews
Mon 2008.02.04
This post inspired me to clean up my office. I wrote about it over on my blog, but it might be worth repeating here that the reason I kept a messy workspace was a deep sense that messy desks are equated with important people. I think all the mess made me feel like I was busy and important because I was following and reading a lot of stuff. Anyway, my office is not clutter free and it feels nice!