Clean your desk, clear your mind.

While working, my clean desk is a safe harbor, free of any trouble. It is there that I design & develop ideas. Ideas that turned into a project. Projects that our team want to bring to life.

It begins with a wireframe which I promise myself to throw away quickly. Day goes on and a mess is born : trash of my last snack, post-its, coins, etc. At the end, my clean desk turned into a battlefield where papers and post-it fight against snack trash and coins. That’s when it get pretty tricky, I start to lose focus.

Stress your mind

As trash piles up, so does the stress. Bit by bit, you lose focus - "I have to throw it" or "I have to store it" is what you may be thinking — but you, already, have too much work and no time to clean it. Before you knew it, you’re at the end of your week, slowing down your pace.

Today, I’m using simple solutions to end it before it piles up. It makes me more productive and less distracted.

The end of snack waste

In front of my desk, I won’t eat any snack anymore. Easy to say, it was really hard for me because while working, your mind is pushing you forward to end your task no matter what and a snack, often, represents a breather.

Once in awhile, I take a brief break to snack away from my desk, allowing myself to relax, take a good breath before returning to work, more focus than ever.

Of course, we didn’t aim to be the next Mohamed Ali or Usain bolt but knew, we could move forward. Fear is a choice.

The end of paper and post-it stack

I am, mainly, using papers or post it to remind me of an idea, a task, a wireframe, etc. To keep it clean, I use Notes to write ideas, Reminders to add my tasks and a shot of my sketches sent, thereafter, by mail.

It's really easy, but your mind will mercy you and you will be more focus on your work. Do the same for your house, your car, etc — and you life will really be stressless.