On tidying up the office... (or not)

Sooo... Staples Advantage Canada has named today "National Clean Your Office Day."  My cynical side sees the obvious marketing ploy, of course, but my I-can't-find-my-desk side grudgingly accepts that perhaps some tidying and organizing (and recycling, scrubbing, airing-out...) might be worth investigating.

Being a Business Librarian, I don't just reach for the broom!  I open up Business Source Complete to find out if a tidy desk is even worth the effort!

A couple quick exploratory searches, and I discover that there don't appear to be perfect terms in BSC that will catch all the relevant articles, or perhaps there really just aren't that many articles on this topic.  I quickly find terms like Paperwork (Office practice) -- Management and Orderliness, but they don't quite hit the mark. Then I get excited when I come across the subject Cleaning -- Psychological aspects, but disappointed to find that it only gets me 4 articles.

Adding in terms like Labor productivity, Industrial productivity, Organizational effectiveness or Office management seems to help a bit, but, frankly, none of these subjects quite gives me the results I want. Time for a "Hail Mary" keyword search:

(messy or clutter* or unclutter* or tidy or clean or organized) w3 (desk or office or workspace)
[That "w3" is a proximity locator - learn about such fancy search techniques here.]

That's still not as focused of a search as I'd like, but it does help me find that there are arguments on both sides of the "tidy desk=tidy mind" adage.  Apparently, if I make my workspace too tidy, I may reduce my creativity!  Plus a clean desk will show that I'm not really as busily engaged with my work as I should be.

On the other hand, leaving the mess in place could result in my colleagues and clients (you!) thinking I'm an unprofessional slob and losing respect for me, or I could even lose track of some confidential information (unlikely with my job).   And, of course, a clean desk will lead to more than just an enhanced social life; I'm told that I'll experience a boost in productivity, a reduction in stress, greater sales, (maybe not relevant to my job...), improved health and generally wonderful success in business, life, and, well, everything.

<sigh>  My cynical side notes that many of these articles quote "authoritative" sources who seem to have a vested interest in selling me cleaning supplies and filing systems, and I suspect there's an element of the Neatniks thinking the whole world would be better if they ran things.  I could keep digging for solid studies, but I think I've procrastinated about long enough!  Time to get cleaning.  :-)

-- Mark

P.S.: Depending on your country, it's also Arbor Day,  Malaria Awareness Day, and World Penguin Day, not to mention the all-important 8-months-to-Xmas Day.  Yes, I'm procrastinating again... Hmmm... maybe I could research procrastination!