{"id":4565,"date":"2015-08-07T08:32:08","date_gmt":"2015-08-07T12:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/?p=4565"},"modified":"2015-07-17T15:16:33","modified_gmt":"2015-07-17T19:16:33","slug":"reduce-stress-by-de-cluttering-your-desk-and-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/uncategorized\/reduce-stress-by-de-cluttering-your-desk-and-office\/","title":{"rendered":"Reduce stress by de-cluttering your desk and office"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry\">\n<p>Feeling stressed and overwhelmed? Take a deep breath and then take a look around. Is your space neat and orderly, or is it cluttered and disorganized? If it\u2019s the latter, it may actually be contributing to your stress level.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/blog\/high-octane-women\/201203\/why-mess-causes-stress-8-reasons-8-remedies\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-4566\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/files\/2015\/07\/messy-desk.jpg\" alt=\"messy desk\" width=\"205\" height=\"132\" \/>Research shows that clutter can cause stress<\/a> by overwhelming our brains with excessive stimuli, distracting us and interfering with our ability to focus, promotes anxiety and an inability to relax, and inhibits productivity and creativity. It can also even contribute to feelings of guilt and shame\u2014for example, when others visit your cluttered office. In honor of Organize Your Home Office day on March 10, here are some simple strategies you can use to begin de-cluttering your desk, office, and more.<\/p>\n<p><strong>General tips for de-cluttering any space:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Divide things into 3 piles: Keep, Donate, and Trash.<\/strong> Anything you\u2019re sure you\u2019ll need, keep it. Anything you don\u2019t really have a need for but that is still usable can be donated. And anything unwanted and unusable should just go in the trash.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Take a trip down memory lane.<\/strong> Think back to the last time you used a particular item. If you\u2019ve never used it, or you don\u2019t see a reason to use it in the future, it\u2019s probably a good candidate for the Donate pile.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/files\/2015\/07\/clean-desk.jpg\" class=\"broken_link\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-4567 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/files\/2015\/07\/clean-desk.jpg\" alt=\"clean desk\" width=\"259\" height=\"194\" \/><\/a><strong>Tips for de-cluttering your office:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Clean off the top of your desk.<\/strong> Having a clear desk can help you have a clearer mind! File important papers, throw away junk that\u2019s accumulated, and find jars or mugs to store pens and pencils in. Aim to have very little on your desk\u2014your computer and phone are the absolute essentials. To keep yourself happy and motivated while working, you may also want to add a special framed photo or meaningful quote to, or hung above, your desk.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Pressed for time?<\/strong> Instead of cleaning out your entire desk at one time, just dump the contents of one drawer onto the floor. Quickly sort through the contents and choose what to keep, donate, or trash. Then reorganize the drawer with only the items you want to keep. To keep the momentum going, choose a time that you\u2019ll tackle the next desk drawer, and set a reminder on your phone so you don\u2019t forget.<\/li>\n<li><strong>De-clutter your computer.<\/strong> Avoid having a messy digital desktop. Use folders to organize your files. You can also drop most of your programs\u2014especially the ones you don\u2019t use every day\u2014into a folder, or at least remove their icons from your desktop. Visual digital clutter can be stress-inducing, too.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Create a \u201cpending\u201d space.<\/strong> You may not have time to go through your mail every day. Instead of letting it pile up on the corner of your desk, designate a \u201cpending\u201d box for all items you still need to go through and deal with. Set a reminder on your phone to go through this box once a week to sort the items and file them, respond to them, etc.<\/li>\n<li><strong>De-clutter your desk daily.<\/strong> Don\u2019t let papers or trash pile up. At the end of every day, take 5 minutes to neaten up your desk. That way, you\u2019ll be able to start fresh the next morning and be productive in your neat area.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Feeling stressed and overwhelmed? Take a deep breath and then take a look around. Is your space neat and orderly, or is it cluttered and disorganized? If it\u2019s the latter, it may actually be contributing to your stress level. Research &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/uncategorized\/reduce-stress-by-de-cluttering-your-desk-and-office\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2520,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paB9fc-1bD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2520"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4565"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4568,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4565\/revisions\/4568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/healthyhorizons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}