We cleaned the apartment last weekend, trying to drive a stake through the heart of the debris that had accumulated through the rolling hell that was the month of March. I took this snapshot of my desk prior to tidying it up, capturing the accumulated mass of bags, stacked notebooks, and paperwork that hadn’t been processed.
I have a process for cleaning my desk these days–drawn, unsurprisingly, from a quick YouTube bit Marie Kondo put together for a UK magazine back when her book came out. It runs through a five step process:
- Take a moment to refocus on what the space is used for, and how I’d like it to be used.
- Pull everything off and group them into Notebooks, Papers, Misc Stationary, and Sentimental Things (Anything that doesn’t fit into those four categories probably doesn’t belong on my desk)
- Keep the things that help me ‘spark joy,’ which in this context means ‘do my job better’ as much as ‘makes me happy.’ Although I feel free reign to be specific about pens in this context.
- Discard the stuff that no longer has a place.
- Put things in an order and store vertically where possible–all my laptops/tablets now get stored in an old magazine file, while all my notebooks sit upright in a decorated box that makes them easily accessible.
I have this process written down in my bullet journal, tucked away on page 60. When this journal is done, they’ll be transferred to a notecard and tucked into a desk draw, so they’re always really accessible.
Because the biggest point in hesitation after shit, I should tidy my desk is figuring out what the first step is. And having a documented process means I can start without having to answer that question–the first step is checking the process list and doing the first thing on it.
For things like a desk, where cleaning often means making dozens of small decisions about what to do with paperwork or things that have not yet found a permanent home, cutting down on the basic decisions makes it way easier to get started.
