Clean your desk on a Friday
I originally wrote this article on New Year’s Eve in 2021. I love the idea and have edited it to be more appropriate all-season reading.
A client at a gym I used to work at was full of witty one-liners. His dream was to write a coffee table style book full of ‘noble’ advice. This one really stuck with me and I’ve found it tremendously helpful throughout my life. Shout out Bob, thank you for the advice.
“Clean your desk on a Friday.”
Yes, it sounds counterintuitive.
Why not on a Monday? Why not every day? It almost sounds like someone telling you to make your bed right before you get in to go to sleep.
The whole idea is to set yourself up for fresh start for Monday morning. No one likes Monday morning (unless it’s your day off). If your desk is clean on a Monday morning you aren’t starting your week cluttered, chaotic, or cranky. Your future self will thank you for it. It’s also a great way to wrap up the end of the week too, so you can put it behind you. Not to mention that it may help remind you of things you need to execute in the upcoming week.
Yes, tasks may overlap weeks so you can’t always have things be checked off on Fridays. Yes, this may not apply if you work over the weekend. Yes, it won’t complete your to do list. Yes, it is the last thing I would ever want to do when it’s time to leave for the weekend.
I’ve poorly applied this advice in my professional life. I’ll be honest, the weeks that I’ve done it felt way more productive than weeks that I didn’t. Those are the weeks when things are ‘organized chaos’ rather than pure chaos. A little order in one’s life can go a long way. The discipline of cleaning your desk on a Friday really can be a small habit that will help keep you on track, humble, and even give yourself something to be proud of as you head off into the weekend.
As we’re heading into the new year, I’d encourage taking this to heart. For both this week and this year, after all it is Friday. What are some things that you can ‘clean up’ today that will get you started on the right foot next week, the first week of the new year? Good habits build with consistency. Progress happens humbly and slowly. We clean our desks only for them to get disorganized again, that’s life.
