With more people staying home to work – perhaps for some time to come – you and your clients may be struggling to find the right home office setup and ways to stay focused and productive.
Look to Marie Kondo, the Japanese tidying up guru, who wrote The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, who developed the KonMari method of home decluttering.
“Spark joy” is Kondo’s famous rallying cry.
Here are some KonMari-based strategies for creating a comfortable, productive work-at-home life.
- Create an ideal work spot. Imagine how you want your workspace to look when you walk in in the morning. Do you want to be surrounded by piles of paper, dirty coffee cups, and random non-work clutter? Or do you want a clean, clear space where you can step in and start being productive immediately? “We’re live more closely with our clutter right now,” comments Ivey, Kristyn Ivey, a certified KonMari-certified consultant with Chicago-based For the Love of Tidy, who work both in-person and virtually to help clients declutter. Envision your ideal workspace and then it.
- Action, not storage.
Move everything that’s not essential to your task off your work surface, whether that’s a desk, portable table, or the kitchen table. “That surface is for action, not for storage,” comments Ivey. Clutter, after all, distracts and can cause anxiety and affect your concentration and productivity. If you don’t have drawers, put your work tools – staplers, pens, cords, and so forth – in an accessible bin.
- Set boundaries. Create both a physical and psychological separation between your office and living space. Find a way to step away at the end of the day and leave the work behind – not taking calls, answering emails, or working during your personal time. Rethinking how you spend your time helps too. Ivey sets aside blocks of time to do specific tasks, batching and performing administrative duties at a particular time each week and doing hands-on work at other times. “I’ve found a way to Konmari my schedule in a way that sparks joy for me,” she comments.
