“A clean desk is the sign of a sick mind” was a silly saying on dime-store bumper stickers that found its way onto novelty plaques and gag gifts of yesteryear. Is it true for anyone you know?
Likely not, yet it was the rallying call for folks protective of their kind of effective, ‘visual filing’. Out of sight, out of mind. So, they must have things accessible and have an uncanny ability to locate any file in any category in what we see as a ‘bless this mess’ situation.
Does the opposite aesthetic offer more? Will a pretty, organised, minimalist-chic office lead to more productivity? Today, I post most of an email note in an email from organizer par excellence, Kerry Thomas. You may have seen her TED Talk. I became aware of her again via her connection to Barbara Hemphill’s Professional Environment Institute (PEI), a quarantine-era course I took when most of us were scrambling to tame our mushrooming workspace relocated to the mess magnets of our homes.
I bought and perused Barbara’s first book in the 1970s, Taming the Paper Tiger. As a 20-something event co-ordinator at the Winnipeg Convention Centre, I was awash in contracts and extreme detail sheets. But then we all need a refresher and help, eh?
Now, I benefit from easy-peasy check-ins with Kerry Thomas’s Facebook community: Less Clutter More Peace.
Kerry helps people conquer chaos, regardless of their learning styles or temperaments, or resources, during daunting challenges and downsizing. I regularly draw inspiration, humour or affirmation that I am on the right path on my own stuff and paper from her newsletter emails and posts. Here it is with some subheads inserted by me.
Her introduction:
Hello friends,
Can we talk about something that trips up a lot of smart people? Your brain is not your to-do list.
The high-performing professionals I work with are often juggling dozens, sometimes hundreds, of responsibilities.
It’s tempting to keep it all “in your head,” trusting that you’ll remember everything at the right time. But your brain wasn’t designed for storage; it was designed for strategy.
Unique challenge of the confident and often young:
I’m coaching a high school senior right now on executive function skills, and one thing that always strikes me is this: the younger my clients are, the more confident they are that they can hold every due date and appointment in their heads.
And to be fair… he probably can do it better than I can. 😄
Time will tell, eh?
But I’m teaching him this skill now because eventually, the mental juggling act stops feeling clever and starts feeling chaotic.
When you try to mentally juggle everything, your focus fragments, your stress increases, and important things slip through the cracks.
The solution isn’t to work harder; it’s to build a system outside your head that you can rely on.
Kerry’s simple reset for this week:
1️⃣ Capture everything—projects, tasks, ideas, reminders—somewhere you trust (digital, paper, or hybrid).
2️⃣ Turn that list into a plan by grouping related tasks and scheduling time for the ones that matter most.
3️⃣ Use your brain for thinking and deciding, not remembering.
A weight loss tip, errr at least a burden putter downer:
✨ This week’s motivation: Free up your mental space. Offload what’s in your head into a system you trust, and see how much lighter you feel.
Reach out and get help if you need to. Make it your own seasonal gift of calm and freedom from chaos. Or, as Kerry says in her Less Clutter More Peace social media group: Reduce Clutter and Live a Life of Purpose and Peace.
Find Kerry Thomas here:
Till next time, Keep Living Well to Deadline
