Less Visual Clutter

In my day job I must work on the computer to collaborate with colleagues, engage with customers, and create digital content. For me to do all of that, I need to focus on a screen for eight hours a day. Especially in video conferences, I need to pay constant attention to the speaker as with this limited medium you lose body language information, and you can ‘sense’ the other person less. Very often I catch my eyes wandering from the screen. My eyes need some exercise by changing focus, opening the lenses by focussing on different light sources, and by moving my eyeballs in a wider range to stretch a bit. I personally think, this is important to stop my vision from degrading. I love to look outside through the windows as I have a natural landscape around me and it gives me peace of mind when watching birds fly by, or cats lazing in wait for them. Also, seeing green trees and colourful blossoms brings joy to my heart.

Very often though my gaze does not make it to the window, as my eyes catch an object on my table which distracts me from my current thought process. Usually, the object reminds me of another task that needs to be done like calling someone, or I get reminded of old tasks which I finished, but just want to check again quickly to make sure I did them correctly. Sometimes, old memories pop up, for example how thoughtful the little present from my colleague was, which is sitting on the side of my table. All these stimuli distract me from my current activity, and I must make a conscious effort to get my focus back. On some days, it is easy to do so, but on others I have the feeling that I am never able to come back to my original topic. This is especially true for unengaging activities. For example, listening to an online seminar where I do not have to contribute. To avoid these distractions, my strategy is to have clean surroundings, which in my case means having no visual clutter around me.

On my desk only the objects which have a necessary function are allowed. Monitor, mouse, keyboard, trackpad, lamp, headphones, and the charging cable for the phone. These objects do not trigger any thought process (except perhaps that I need to charge my phone…). I only have one constant and important reminder around me and that is a glass of water. My sticky notes are in OneNote, my pictures are in a digital folder, and there is no pen or paper lazing around as everything I write down is digital.

Avoiding visual clutter does not stop with the physical desk. I also keep my virtual desktop free from documents and shortcuts. OneNote is well organized and gets a clean-up once a month. Historically, I used to write something which came to my mind which is not relevant right at that moment on a sticky note, to not forget about it. Now I write these down in my OneNote on my To-do list, so that it is out of my way for the time being and I can prioritize and work on it later. I follow a zero-email inbox strategy and I keep push notifications (the little pop ups when someone writes you a chat message or you received a new email) to a minimum. I schedule focus time in which I switch off all notifications and close all apps which are irrelevant to the task at hand to avoid distractions. Following this strategy has increased my productivity as well as creativity, and has allowed me to finish all my tasks within the given timelines. Since I am less driven by outside stimuli I feel less overwrought. Now when my eyes wander around it is truly a break, not only for my eyes but also for my mind. I call them my Little Wellness Holes.