Is There Room For Improvement?

About a month ago I was listening to a crypto trader on Twitter, speaking about trading psychology and related stuff. He started telling the audience about his weekly routine, that always starts with cleaning his desk. This may sound strange to many as cleaning your desk has nothing to do with crypto trading or strategies, but if you are willing to listen and think as well, you will realize it has a lot of meaning and it is an example to follow, even if you're not a trader.

I had a quick look at my desk, while listening to the guy and could immediately see there's room for improvement there. I'm not talking about my Rubik's cube that I usually use when I need a bit of time to think, or my eraser that is like plasticine and I use it when I need to focus on something.

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I'm not sure how your mind works, but I tend to put things on my desk I don't have time for at that given moment. Like leaflets, books I should read, notes I should clear and so on. These are there to be taken care of the way it should, but if I want to be brutally honest, this is a form of procrastination.

You put the book you should be studying on the desk, hoping to get some free time soon, but that free time never appears in your calendar. Why? Because you never make time as it's not a priority and after some time the whole thing, these objects become part of your room decoration, you get used to them and don't even see them. After some time you don't even know what's in that pile or why it is there.

Such a behavior can lead to narrowing your working space heavily and procrastinating things endlessly, or till you get fed up and decide to clean your desk. Then your happiness lasts for a day or two and you start the whole process from the beginning. You fill up your desk again, with things you don't need, till you have enough and then start cleaning it up. This is a never ending thing.

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No matter how bad it looks, this is the better case, trust me, as there are those who use the desk for storing empty beer cans, soda bottles, used notes, empty food packages, cigarette packs and ashtrays full of cigarette butts. I mentioned the desk, because that's where we tend to spend most of our time, especially if your job is an office job or you're a blogger, and/or a trader. But this example can be extended to artists, musicians and so on.

The problem with this is, there's a good chance that this happens in more areas of your life, not just on your desk and that is not funny anymore, nor is something it should be allowed to grow. Procrastinating things, letting unsolved things to build up in your life can have serous consequences.

There's a saying in Hungarian. Don't leave it for tomorrow, what you can do today. This is the original version, what parents tell their kids from an early age, to teach them to do the right thing. However, there's the funny version of it as well, according to which Don't leave it for tomorrow, what you can do today, leave it for the day after tomorrow as someone may do it in the meantime. We used to laugh and this and make fun of this, but on a more serious note, it's definitely not something you should get used to. Things can roll over, a small problem can become bigger and bigger, till you can't solve it anymore.

National Clean Off Your Desk Day takes place on the second Monday of January each year. When was the last time you cleaned out your workspace? Did you know the average work desk can be 100 times filthier than a kitchen table? Nasty, right? But there’s more. A work desk is probably 400 times less hygienic than an average toilet seat. Hygienic surroundings keep us free from all kinds of diseases. A clean workspace unclutters and inspires. And scientific research says tidy desks make you more efficient. So, take time today for some thorough decluttering and cleaning. source

A Clean Workspace Unclutters And Inspires

Imagine sitting down to your desk, which is full of everything (I intentionally avoided the word sh*t). For me that's a bit depressing as it tells me I have a lot to do and let's be honest, we all want free time, not more work. The other thing that a messy desk does to you is distraction. You can get distracted easily, when you should focus the most, which is not good.

Photo by Blvck Paris on Unsplash

A view like that would shift my focus away from my work, but a clean desk like that would help me a lot. I don't consider myself a messy person, nor a procrastinator, but there's always room for improvement. 2023 should be another year to focus on improving what I can, whenever I can.

So what about you? How clean is your desk? Are you guilty? Don't lie, try to be honest! 😂

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