Yes, a desk can be obnoxious. Don’t believe me? Ask any of my bandmates or our manager: they’ve seen it, and I’ve witnessed at times the geekospheres they’ve set for themselves.
And before anyone thinks there’s any kind of shade being thrown there, I would caution that you would be sorely mistaken.
You see, I’ve tried having a clean, neat, and orderly desk. It lasts for a week or two, and then a form of chaos creeps back in. In my head, if I have a large amount of unused space on my desk, it’s wasted real estate. Heck, when it is kept mostly clear, I have a hard time remembering exactly where I put the things I previously kept atop the desk. Oddly enough, even when the desk is cluttered as it is now, I can still somehow find things when I need them.
After many the attempt to put and keep things in order, and well prior to being diagnosed as neurospicy, I came to some conclusions.
There’s 24 hours in a day. Allegedly we’re supposed to spend 6-8 of those sleeping (and we all get that right?), leaving between 16-18 hours of waking time. For those with a “desk” job, whether in office or work from home, let’s say an average of 8 hours a day, that means up to half our waking time is spent at a desk. Then, for those of us who happen to use our “work” desk for personal use as well, e.g. gaming, other hobbies and projects, surfing the web, etc.; that time at desk takes up a majority of waking time in a day.
That’s a considerable amount of time to spend in a space, and not have it without evidence of one’s personality. Note, please, that I use those terms, because I get that some folks need a very clear and non-cluttered space, while others, not so much. Clearly, I fall into the latter.
As such, I tend to try to keep a balance where while never “clear” by what I guess to be most people’s standards, I have what I consider to be a reasonable amount of personality reflected in the things I keep on my desk on the regular, white doing my best to clear extra things, like receipts or paperwork needing to be addressed, filed, scanned, and/or shredded, or small repair jobs I get handed. And of course each time as I clear a batch of this built up detritus, I tell myself I’ll not let it build up so much in the future. Whereas there’s been some progress made, it’s still nowhere where I would like it to be.
So, here’s where I have an ask of y’all. I genuinely want to know what are your preferences on your workspace? Spartan, cluttered, or maybe somewhere in between? And what is your process for keeping it so? I really look forward to hearing your versions, and any advice offered!
Until then, I’ll be Smauging here atop my current filing system.
Much Love,
Paul
I fall somewhere in between when it comes to my working space. Sometimes to work optimally it has to be neat and clean so i can spread my stuff all over the place (like notes for stories, stuff I’m using for reference, etc.)–other times when I’m just kinda chilling and not really working at the desk I feel like it needs to be a lot more cluttered (that way I don’t feel so bad about not being productive >.> I mean how can you be productive on a space that’s cluttered?)