By default I don’t have the tidiest workspace, it took years and foster kittens to teach me the value of putting things away.
Each morning when I sit down at my desk after my daily planning (which I do upstairs at the dining table) I spend about 5 minutes tidying up and making sure the tools I need for the day’s tasks are readily available.
For a long time I thought I needed to spend lots of time to create a tidy workspace, and that it wouldn’t really make a difference. I was wrong. When I’m working on my more creative work, I pull out lots of stuff and find the chaos fosters new designs and ideas. When I need to focus on a client project and a deadline, those five minutes are highly valuable and bring hours of focus and problem solving. I’m not alone:
When To Say Yes To The Messy Desk
Organize Your Workspace for Maximum Productivity
Clean Your Desk for Productivity (but Keep It Messy for Creativity)