Roland L. Williams, President of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway, once said, “A person with his desk piled high with papers on various matters will find his work much easier and more accurate if he clears that desk of all but the immediate problem at hand. I call this good housekeeping, and it is the number-one step toward efficiency.”
If you visit the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., you will find five words painted on the ceiling written by the poet Pope: “Order is Heaven’s first law.”
Shouldn’t order be the first order of business, too?
Of course, this is true, but the average desk is cluttered up with papers that haven’t been looked at for weeks. Besides the unkempt look, the mere sight of a desk littered with unfinished projects, unanswered mail and reports, memos and sticky-notes is enough to breed confusion, tension, and worries. It also produces a constant reminder of “a million things to do and not time to do them,” causing tension and fatigue and possibly high blood pressure, heart trouble, and stomach ulcers.
Is a cluttered desk worth all that? Of course it isn’t.
If you maintain a neat and organized desk, congratulations! You’re one of the few. But if your desk looks like a mini-tornado hit it, take some time today to straighten things up. Put away projects that are no longer being worked on, record notes and phone numbers off scraps of paper if necessary, and by all means, throw away what you don’t need! You’ll find that a clear desk will lead to a clear mind.
This post is brought to you by the good folks at Dale Carnegie Training of Central & Southern New Jersey. We would love to connect with you on Facebookand Twitter @CarnegieJersey.
Photo credit: freedigitalphotos.net/imagerymajestic
The post A Clear Mind Starts With a Clear Desk appeared first on The Official Blog of Dale Carnegie Training of Central & Southern New Jersey.