We spent one full day over the Thanksgiving holiday rearranging our office space. It was overdue, especially for a team that says "taking place seriously" is one of the guiding principles we're committed to practicing.
The truth is, our stuff had gotten out of control.
Too much unnecessary paper. Too many un-filed files. All around us were piles of books, stacks of newspapers, towers of equipment, and mountains of mail. It felt like the walls were closing in on us.
The root cause wasn't just not enough time, although it's true that we've had a very busy year and it's been easy to put off dealing with this situation; but the real issue was that our space just wasn't being used wisely enough.
So, we sorted and got out some big garbage bags and what we didn't throw away we either boxed up or found a sensible home for. We thought about how we work and what we needed to be more productive and created some new systems for filing and organizing. We moved all the furniture around. We cleaned.
Not only does everything look a lot better around here, we are thinking a lot better, too. The truth is, having an uncluttered space helps create an uncluttered mind. It's more peaceful. And more productive.
We even found that we actually have more space than we thought we did.
Over at Pink Magazine today (one of our favs) there are some helpful tips for how to unclutter your office space. It's a helpful read. And there are a lot of websites and blogs out there to give you inspiration and tips for uncluttering both your work space and your life.
What does your place look like? Is it working for you? Is it a place you can be creative, calm, clear-headed? Is it a place you love to spend time? If so, what's your secret?!
If not, it might be time for a serious overhaul.
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