By Amy Conrad
Manager, Accounting Services
Email Amy
As you read this, are papers piled up around you? Are empty water bottles forming a plastic paradise on your desk? Does the mention of “spring cleaning” send shivers up your spine?
Although it’s easy to dread spring cleaning as a yearly chore, it has many long-term benefits that will make you feel so much better than procrastinating ever will. Here are a few perks …
Control: In the midst of a heavy workload, cleaning is an easy task to put off, but it can actually help with how you handle the stress of daily assignments. As clinical psychologist Marni Amsellem said, “When so much of life feels beyond our control, maintaining order and cleanliness is one way for us to exert some mastery over our environments, which can extend into our overall feeling of mastery.” If you can organize your workspace, you can catch up on those emails or meet that looming deadline.
Time: Knowing where everything is on your desk or in your computer files saves a great deal of time and keeps you trucking through tasks. Stopping to dig for something can hurt the progress you’ve made on a particular assignment. In fact, research from Michigan State University shows that even a five-second interruption can triple the rate of errors on our work.
Physical Health: Dusting and wiping down your desk this time of year can keep colds and allergies at bay, thus saving you from using up sick days and time you could be spending on work. Time away from work can create stress, which affects the executive function of your brain, lowering your ability to organize and starting the vicious cycle of a cluttered workspace all over again.
Helpful Work Habits: The best way to approach spring cleaning is with specificity. For example, don’t just say you’ll get to it. Block out an exact time frame. The same applies to your work. You can also adopt the repetitive process of cleaning in how you manage your workload. If you clean every day from 3:30 to 4, maybe start replying to emails within specific time windows. And don’t get overwhelmed by focusing on finishing everything all at once. Start by focusing on cleaning out one drawer. When it comes to your work tasks, start the day with the goal of selling one item … or writing part of a proposal for one prospective client. Maybe check in with two or three employees — knowing where they stand with their workload may give you the confidence to move forward with your own workday. Whatever you do, take it one step at a time.
Spring cleaning — or any act of organization — isn’t a one-shot deal. It’s a continuous learning process. As professional organizer Lisa Zaslow said, “Don’t think that you need to get everything right on the first pass. It’s absolutely okay to just get started and do a little bit and come back to it. You can do this a little bit at a time and celebrate your wins as you do each step. And that will again give you the motivation to keep on going.”
The most important part is to keep on going.
If we can assist you further with information on organizing your workspace or other business matters, please call us at (317) 608-6699 or email Amy.