TL/DR:
- A tidy desk, color-coded calendar, or immaculate filing system doesn’t equal productivity
- Over-organization can create clutter
- Beautiful systems often fail in practice
- Productivity comes from simplicity and usability
The Whole Shebang:
What does your desk look like?
Not your desktop.
But your actual, physical desk?
- Is it a total disaster?
- Is it full of stuff, but highly “organized?”
- Or is it spartan?
And most importantly, how does it feel to you when you sit down to work at that desk?
Why?
Recently a client shared a story with me, that a colleague he respected greatly stopped by his desk and remarked that there was too much paper on it.
And he was a bit taken aback because other colleagues had told him that his desk was “so organized”, and he had seen that as a point of pride.
So I asked him to show me his desk.
And it was very organized.
There were neat and tidy piles of paper, interleaved in equal intervals.
It definitely wasn’t “a mess”.
And then I asked him what those papers were for, and how he used them?
And the reality is that he didn’t really use them.
They were reminders of stuff that was not quite done.
But he didn’t need those reminders because he was already keeping that stuff in Asana and is pretty darn consistent in it’s use. (Woohoo!)
It turned out that all that organized paper was doing nothing but stressing him out.
And that makes sense.
Because studies show that clutter increases cortisol (and objects that are neither useful or beautiful are the definition of clutter, at least in my book) .
And what does cortisol do?
It’s your stress hormone, your fight or flight hormone.
And in excess, it makes you more distractible, less able to focus, and messes with your sleep.
And all of that?
Well, it makes you less productive.
So, while “organized”, my client’s was not a desk that fostered productivity.
Being “organized” is not the same as being “productive”.
Being “organized” doesn’t mean you’re using your time well.
Unfortunately.
I often see this same thing with clients who are super stressed about time (when we start working together, before they transform their relationship to time) and can’t quite figure out why because they are so “organized”. They’re using a task app, and it’s very “organized”.
And they aren’t wrong. When I see their app, their lists, it’s “organized”, alright, but it’s not useful.
In fact, in most cases, it’s too organized.
They’re spending a lot of time organizing things into categories and subcategories, in an attempt to feel in control.
But this excess categorization means it’s hard to figure out what to do today, tomorrow, next week. (Which is, in my experience, the point of a task system.)
Or I sometimes see this in beautifully organized, color coded calendars (that are then ignored).
It’s organized, but it doesn’t reflect reality.
It’s not useful.
Beautiful, but not useful.
It’s digital clutter.
My clients are often surprised when I say things like:
- “Only add complextity where it becomes necessary.”
Or
- “Stop filing your email, or at least reduce the number of categories.”
When you strive for organization, it’s a false symbol.
It gives you a façade, an image, of productivity and control, without actually helping you in our goals.
And sometimes, it’s even counterproductive.