Unclutter The Desk In Your Head! - Part 3

Now let's tackle the desk in your head....

So if you are following this blog series you will know that I am writing about ways to prepare for feeling more in control about our work activities and ultimately feel more satisfied about what we spend most of our lives doing.

So in my last blog I talked about giving ourselves ten minutes of peace , not reacting to anything and calming the mind.
Today I am going to help you to start tackling that desk and seeing it for what it is and not for how it makes us feel...

So you have arrived at work, thoughts are spinning around in your head and for many people getting to work is often a period of 'reaction time'.  We might know that we have things to do but ultimately we might be tempted to procrastinate and react to a colleague's call or do something that feels like work but in the scheme of things is minor compared to what you have to do or what is meaningful.  We get really busy, but there is no sense of meaningfulness or worth in what we have done, a lack of satisfaction.
This blog is for you if you feel like this.  I know what it feels like as I have been there too.

So let's turn this situation around, particularly if you feel trapped with no hope.

Here are some basic things you can do to sort out that 'desk in your head'.

Step 1 in uncluttering the desk in your head!  Step up to the desk and take a look!

Firstly, why don't you simply just focus?  Personal experience showed me that if I got to work and the first thing I did was check my social media statuses, or make a coffee, or have a chat then it was likely that I wasn't going to have a very productive day.

You know how it is, you log onto Facebook and see who is doing what or who has responded to what you have posted.  There's a little red number telling you that five people like your status, then you are tempted to find out who, then you find another link about something that you think you are going to like , then you read or watch it then you , then you, then you...... THEN YOU FIND OUT THAT 30 MINUTES HAS GONE BY.....and you still haven't focused on what it is important.

It feels empty to not have achieved much at the start of the day doesn't it?

So my challenge to you is to go to work, and spend the first ten minutes of your day looking at your cluttered desk and make it a priority to visualise what you would like it to look like i.e. work out for yourself what exactly a good day would look like at the end of your day?  What would you have achieved and how good would you feel in getting it done?  Once you have given yourself that time, work backwards and plan what you need to do to get there.  Don't overwhelm yourself, and don't bash yourself over the head if you don't quite make it.  Just commit yourself to giving it a good try.

What you are doing here is stepping up to your cluttered desk and mentally preparing yourself to make an impact.  If work colleagues or customers impact on that time, do whatever you have to do in order to give yourself the space to have the best possible result for the day.

"Do what you have to do...to have the best possible result for the day."

So far we have look at calming our minds down and not allowing distractions to eat away at our focus for the work that we have to do.  Now we are prepared to walk up to the desk and plan how to unclutter.  If we can visualise what we want our 'desk' or our day ahead to look like then we can start to plan how to get there.  If we start the day reacting to everything that hits us then we are going to have problems.  Don't forget to stop yourself from getting distracted, check Facebook later!

Keep tuned for more tips.....