It happened to me on numerous occasions as a student.

While I found excuses to avoid clearing up the mess with phrases like ‘there’s a method in my madness’, deep down I knew better. Now I have a weekly desk de-clutter scheduled on my weekend To Do List using a technique that I outline in this post.

I have followed this practice faithfully for the last two decades. It is so embedded in my psyche that I guess it is now a sacred ritual for me.

One benefit I’ve noticed is the increased focus, intent of purpose and a more organized manner of executing my tasks.

The state of a desk and surrounding area says a lot about a person’s frame of mind.

When I visit offices for meetings, I sense things about the person I am supposed to meet based upon the state of their desk. I sense chaos at the sight of heaps of papers, files & dossiers on desktops, not an organized, focused and logical person.

Perhaps the person has a personal foolproof method here, but I am unable to understand it.

My advice to anyone who has a similar desk whether in a corporate office or a home office, or even as a student is – get organized.

If you work in an office, come to work five minutes early and organize everything.

Do it every time you have a clutter which impedes finding the ringing telephone or the car keys under a mountain of papers. It will save a lot of valuable time & increase your work efficiency not to mention reduce avoidable stress.

Believe it or not, there are life coaches who actually specialize in assisting clients to de-clutter.

This is indicative of a serious problem out there needing a solution. A cluttered desk is often associated with signs of a disorganized, cluttered mind and a symptom of a deeper underlying problem.

One of the tips offered by Feng Shui experts for improving the harmony of your environment is to rid yourself of clutter. This includes broken objects and those things that you don’t use. There is something in de-cluttering, whichever way you look at it.

I have 5 easy feng-shui tips that do magic in reducing stress. Click here for more. 

You might think that having a cluttered home, workspace or even car is not a big deal and that you will get around to cleaning up when you have the time and energy.

Have you ever considered the impression that it makes on others and how they view you?

If not for yourself, then perhaps for the sake of appearances in front of others, one could possibly consider a scheduled de-clutter session? Put it into your weekly to do list and reward yourself on completion of this important task.

Depending upon what your clutter is composed of and where it is appearing in your life, it can tell a lot about you, your personality, and the state of your life and areas of stress requiring addressing.

As an example, I am going to refer to 3 areas though there are of course many others one can think of.

Office/workspace clutter

Your Vehicle – clutter

Financial clutter takes the form of pending bills be they utility bills, credit card bills, poor savings habits, unread magazine subscriptions (the ones where you want the free gift for whatever reason but don’t read the magazine) and bad spending habits.

It can point towards your inner insecurity and worries about your financial future. For some, it is transference of their inner emotional turmoil onto material goods under the excuse of retail therapy instead of facing the problems that they might have and dealing with situations head on.

The key to handling clutter and the related stress it creates is to firstly get rid of the clutter –

With this two-pronged approach, you can rid yourself of clutter for good and remedy an often-overlooked stress trigger.

I’m curious, have you ever had a clutter issue? How did you deal with it?

Share your experience in the comments box below and help other readers with their clutter challenge. Thanks!