Last Updated on September 2, 2024
Clutter and dirt have no place in a dedicated entrepreneur’s life. Clutter is a distraction that prevents people from building successful empires and enjoying the thrill of building a business.
Is your office a mess? Is your desk cluttered? If so, that clutter is impacting your productivity in unseen ways. Organizing your office, primarily when you work from home, is the foundation of productivity. Not convinced yet? Here are four reasons you should ditch the cluttered look and keep your office clean:
1. A cluttered office causes stress and exhaustion
Clutter in your home office can cause stress and exhaustion, both of which are the antidote to productivity. ABC affiliate WHAS explains that researchers from UCLA found that “mothers who described their homes as ‘cluttered’ had a stress hormone profile indicative of chronic stress.” Those moms also were more depressed throughout the day, were exhausted in the evenings, and had difficulty transitioning from work to home.
Clutter isn’t limited to physical items. Clutter can also be digital. For example, having too many files on your computer’s desktop, too many tabs open in your browser, and constant push notifications flashing across your monitor or smartphone screen.
Limit the number of items you have around you while you’re working. Keep a clean and clear desk. Eliminate digital distractions by turning off push notifications. Sign out of social media while you’re working, and reduce digital clutter by cleaning off your computer’s desktop once a week.
To be productive, you need to focus on each task to completion without distractions. Multi-tasking is a myth; there is only task switching. Each time your brain switches from one thing to another, it burns more of your precious glucose, leaving you exhausted with a pile of unfinished work.
2. A dirty or worn carpet doesn’t feel prosperous
If you’re like most people, you surround yourself with imagery of luxury and abundance in your home office. Maybe you’ve purchased an executive style desk with an expensive leather chair. You’ve got potted plants and fancy knick-knacks placed all around. Your carpet, however, is a mess. Your office used to be your child’s bedroom so now it’s worn down and dirty. You don’t notice the stains most of the time, but your ugly carpet comes into view through the corner of your eye multiple times per day.
If it’s been more than five years since you’ve had your carpet professionally cleaned, or if you’ve never cleaned your rugs, it’s time to get it done. There are at least seven common issues carpet cleaning can solve including removing bacteria, pet accidents, dried stains, and odor that won’t go away.
A dirty carpet won’t reinforce the mindset of abundance you’re working hard to create – a clean carpet will.
3. Clutter creates anxiety
Clutter is a subconscious distraction that eats away at productivity by inducing low-level anxiety. Clutter can cause the kind of anxiety you don’t particularly notice because it becomes your daily norm. It’s that subtle feeling of being on edge, but not knowing why.
For those already susceptible to anxiety, clutter can induce extreme anxiety.
To get rid of clutter, think beyond merely organizing your immediate office space. De-clutter your entire life including your car, home office, garage, outdoor shed, and the rest of your house. When your garage is a mess, and you don’t have time to clean it up, it will be in the back of your mind while you work creating anxiety.
4. Messy work are as kill your focus
Focus is the main ingredient in the recipe for success. If you can’t focus, you won’t get far.
Focus is the ability to pay attention to what matters and ignore distractions. Clutter, messes, and dirty work spaces keep you distracted and unable to focus on what matters. For example, how many times have you caught yourself thinking about a pile of dirty laundry in the middle of a client project? Thinking about the laundry even for a few moments disrupts your focus.
Take care of the messes that distract you from focusing on your business. If you’ve got too much to do, ask your family or friends for help. Hire a maid if you need to.
Be committed to your success
Commit to success by eliminating dirty and messy distractions. Take a month to organize your entire life from top to bottom, get rid of clutter, and get back to creating your business to be the success you intended.
