I rent a workspace on the corner of our street.
It’s a dreamy 30 second commute, sometimes a smidge longer if I’m carrying a cup of tea and a biscuit or two.
I share the workspace with my husband. He calls it his office, I call it my studio. His half is more corporate, my side more creative. His zoom backdrop is bookshelves, mine is a picture shelf of art in progress. His desk looks out onto a pub, mine to a kebab shop.
In the middle of the room, and around the edges, and spilling into the tiny loo, are things that don’t fit in our house - his bike, his golf clubs, my unused photography set up, my unframed art prints, things we’re waiting for someone to be interested in on Facebook marketplace. And somewhere our dog on her bed which she takes to a new spot each day.
It is a far cry from the picture perfect images you might find in an interiors feature on workspaces of aspiring writers, artists or tech entrepreneurs.
My coworker can work in chaos, with empty coffee cups, chewed pens, scattered papers. I can’t. Mess deeply affects my focus.
But if I spent all my working week tidying, I’d ruin my marriage and my income. So how do I manage?
I use a trick that my cousin and I used to employ when we were small. A two track tidy.
Whenever the physical mess starts creeping into my head to create mental mess, I choose two songs to do a ring-fenced time-focused clean up.
In order to tidy efficiently, I routinely have to cull things from my life - pens that no longer work, drawings that really are terrible, notes from projects I’ve completed. I’m a high speed Marie Kondo, checking if things spark joy, are useful or beautiful. And if they don’t or aren’t, they’re recycled, resold or taken to the charity shop.
If I control the mess in my physical space, I am more in control of my mental space. I feel better and do better work. For me a tidy desk really is a tidy mind.
At the end of the day I wipe my desk, water the plants and hoover the rug. Emptying the bin is my coworkers job. I’ve moved it right next to his desk in hope that his zone being engulfed in rubbish will be the reminder he needs to actually do it.
What is your workspace like? Do you work best in chaos or calm?