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June 13, 2008

Show Your Workspace Some Love

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 6:10 am

I Don’t Read Your Desk

Messy Desk


Productivity.
A desk is like a garage — it’s where you keep your tools. It helps if it’s organized, but your car will run fine when it is not. But messy writing is a sign of messy thinking. It’s proof our ideas aren’t under control. No one wants to be behind the wheel with someone who can’t keep the car on the road.

The thing is it’s a whole lot easier to do clear focused thinking when we don’t see clutter all around us looking back. If we take a few minutes to straighten where we work, our thought come through more easily. Here’s a way to make work more motivating when you return Monday morning.

Friday’s Answer to a Motivated Monday

Finish your last work task early on Friday, so that you have time to complete this list. If you’re working late this week, do all you can to take a “last half hour” anyway. On Monday morning, you’ll be glad you did.

  • Put things done away.
  • Lay out things that still need attending to. Mark what needs to be done. Make a to-do list, if that’s your way.
  • Use the things you laid out to make a plan for next week. Decide what you will tackle first and what your three most important goals will be.
  • Order the Monday tasks by putting what you can get done fastest first. Do this for two reasons. You’ll quickly have a sense of accomplishment, and you’ll be able to pass on what you finished to someone else can take that piece to the next step.

Then consider the week closed, leave the work at the office, give your brain a break, and have a weekend. What a great way to remind yourself and everyone else that you can enjoy your job — head for the weekend with an office that looks like it could be in a magazine . . .

Whether you work in a building away from home or in your bedroom, it’s boost to your Monday to walk back into a space that’s ready to work in.

Don’t you think the way that we take care of ourselves shows in our work? Show your workspace some love. You’ll feel it back guaranteed.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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5 Comments to “Show Your Workspace Some Love”

  1. June 13th, 2008 at 7:36 am
    Karin H. said

    “Then consider the week closed”

    eh, my week doesn’t close ;-) But I do show my workspace some love, every day. And in fact I consider every day closed when I ‘holiday’ in our garden after 5pm (no emails, no internet at home - that’s for the workspace)

    Have a great weekend, I’ll do some more writing, editing, talking, listening, selling, accounting, marketing etc in the meantime: all those tasks that belong to the stretched workweek of a retailer who loves being a retailer ;-)

    Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

  2. June 13th, 2008 at 8:18 am
    Andrew Careaga said

    I needed to read this today. I thank you, and my desk thanks you. (Or will thank you, if I actually follow your suggestions.)

  3. June 13th, 2008 at 8:29 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Karin!
    My week doesn’t really close either. My eyes hardly do. But I’m trying to show more love to the space where I spend my time as a way of making up for the hours I’m here.

    I’ll be thinking of you this weekend. :)

  4. June 13th, 2008 at 9:10 am
    Mark said

    This is a great post. Thanks, Liz.

    I try to put things away, or at least organize them better, on Friday afternoon. I am also a list person, and so because I tend to end my work week in the middle of a technical task (or several), I find it imperative to almost overwrite my list points for pickup on Monday AM. It never fails that when I get back in then, I’m grateful to myself for going the extra mile the previous Friday, as I usually need to refresh myself on the project I’m working on.

  5. June 13th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
    Mother Earth said

    I see a theme here liz, perhaps by example you are recharging on the weekend - bravo to you - I could definitely follow your lead on that one!!

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