Clean up your workplace today! First of all, take 60 minutes to clear the room without disturbance and set an alarm clock. Dispose of all things that you don’t need or are broken. Find a permanent place for each item. Go through your pens and throw away all those that no longer work 100% well. Make a list of items you need to better organize your workplace (binders, filing trays, hole punches, staplers, paper clips, etc.).

I recommend you hang a whiteboard on the wall or buy a flipchart with a stand. It helps a lot to write things on the wall while standing and make little sketches of ideas to get creative and structure your thoughts.

From now on, clean up your workplace at the end of each working day and prepare the things you will need the next day. Write down the most important task for the next day, which – if this is the only thing you do – will make the next day a successful one. Plan on 15 minutes of your working time for cleaning up. So, if you want to finish at 6:00 pm, your work ends at 5:45 pm, and the remaining minutes you tidy up. For this, enter a daily recurring appointment with a reminder in your calendar.

Once a month, plan one hour before the end of work in your calendar (e.g., every last Friday of the month) to muck out, replenish supplies, prioritize filing, etc.

This exercise helps you to significantly improve your productivity, focus, and motivation at your workplace. You will need this for the next few weeks to successfully achieve your goal.