Assessment
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Quick Win
Organizing and decluttering your workspace may help reduce stress and make it easier to feel focused and content.
Try This Today
- Spend the last five minutes of your workday cleaning up and organizing your desk.
- Put all papers in their appropriate bin or folder, and return office supplies to their drawers or containers.
- Place materials that you’ll need immediately the following day where they can be accessed easily.
Why
The Global Council on Brain Health, in its report “Brain Health and Mental Well-Being,” suggests decluttering as a practical way to feel good and function well. Clutter can also interfere with how your brain processes information. In a study involving 30 people ages 18 to 32 published in 2024 in Communications Psychology, researchers found that visual distractions affected how well participants were able to tap working memory and find objects they needed, and how quickly they were able to finish tasks.
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