Joel Clark @joelclark22: How important to you find it to have a clean/neat workspace?
ANSWER
I’ve always been a total mess. It’s almost as if I’m incapable of cleaning up after myself. This is a cop-out. But once a week I pay to have someone clean my workplace. Sometimes twice a week if the kids have been over. If I could pay someone to bathe me I would.
It’s really true: cluttered desk = cluttered mind. But it goes deeper than that. You need clean everything. I can’t function creatively if my stomach is full. Then all my brain energy, all my blood, all the oxygen in my body, is hanging out near my stomach trying to digest whatever crap I force fed it on some binge.
Or if my head is foggy from lack of sleep. Or if my emotions are crowded with anger and jealousy. Or if my breath is bad. It’s important to clean teeth because bacteria love to grow in your mouth. And an infection in the mouth can ultimately (and quietly) spread to an infection in the brain or heart. Believe it not but many heart attacks and strokes can find their roots in, basically, the roots of your teeth.
Clean your desk! Clean your mouth! Clean your emotions, your sleep, your aches, your pains. Gradually, these will be precursors to greater productivity and creativity. Try it. You’ll see.