Ever find you are lacking motivation? Perhaps don't get the work done that you need to get done? Or maybe just feel a little oppressed by your work space... especially on gloomy weather days? Thankfully I don't really have that happen, but I do I find I can improve my mood and work flow by doing a few things to my work space on a regular basis. Today I thought I would share a few of those with you along with some extra bonus tips for generally feeling better and being better at what you do. Bag it First up, grab yourself a couple of bags. Get all the paper waste (hey, we need to be green) into one bag. Be sure to shred anything sensitive of course. Get that into the recycle box. Sweep away Clean off anything you don't need from your desk and in your drawers. Chuck those old sweets and promo toys away... you don't use them anyway... well aside from that cool play putty you got, keep that for thinking time. Dusty dust dust Take everything off and give it all a clean and polish. Just the smell of polish on your desk and computer equipment can be a super boost. If you are lazy, get something that smells nice and plonk it on your desk. Clean as much of the rest of your office / work space in the same way as clutter around you, even if not seen, can be a big downer. Do you really need that out of date calendar? Post it away Now, like most you might have a number of post it notes around? If you are on a mac, open the stickies app and get your notes into those. If you are on windows find something you like to look of from Google and do the same. The task at hand Perhaps some of those notes are tasks that you need to do for clients? Then get yourself a free basecamp account (yup, that's an affiliate link so I can track signups. Costs you nothing though). Get your projects in there, create some to do lists, add your tasks. Treat emails with love When you get new emails in with questions and tasks, get them straight into basecamp before you do anything else. This keeps track of everything and means it is not in your head or cluttering up your email inbox with todo notes and tags. Try to upload any associated files into your projects so you don't lose them. File it damnit! Perhaps you deal with a lot of files for clients or personally? In that case grab yourself a free account with my new fav bit of software, DropBox. That's a special link that will give you some extra free space when you get your free account too. See, I am nice. It's not a physical thing You don't just need to clean your desk space. Get your computer desktop space cleaned up too. Organise things into folders (perhaps that new drop box account?) and delete anything you don't need from your desktop. I'd recommend a nice desktop background too... mine are generally of either something I really want (to motivate me to work in order to get it) or when I need a clear mind I put something nice and simple on from Simple Desktops. Funky music Now, for extra motivation why not get some nice new music from your service of choice, or the shops, itunes, spotify etc. I recommend some chill / ambient music... even classical. If you get music on that you don't know and ideally has few or no words it can really help you focus and keep your head flowing. Sometimes, a tidy of the desk is the best way to get cracking on some work rather than staring at the screen feeling down about what is sitting there waiting to be done. I learned this years ago and still to this day it keeps me going full speed on the work that I do. Pssst here are a few of my spotify lists: Worky, The Mirror Conspiracy, Music for March and Hollywood Chillout. Bonus One final extra tip... once you have done the above, especially the part about getting your tasks into a system like basecamp, jump into your email client, create a folder called 'archive email' or similar and then move every single email currently sitting waiting in your inbox over to the new folder. Empty your inbox and treat all new emails that come in with some efficiency and process. An empty inbox is one of the most liberating feelings and can really help clear your mind. When was the last time your inbox was empty? Exactly. For extra points, grab yourself a copy of PostBox email client as it has some clever pin, todo, marking and search options that come in handy very often once you make use of them. Your ideas... If you have any other tips for getting motivated feel free to share them in the comments below... hopefully I have helped at least one of you have a more productive and happy day.