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LEADERS WHO WORK ON A LARGE, CLEAN DESK MAKE MORE MONEY AND ARE HEALTHIER!

Lesson: This week walk through your office and create clean, open, and organized desks and spaces. It’s the easiest and most-proven strategy to increase your performance, as well as the results of your team. It’s ironic how simple some of the most impactful business tactics are for beating your competition.

Author

Jeff Martinovich
June 21, 2025

Lesson: This week walk through your office and create clean, open, and organized desks and spaces. It’s the easiest and most-proven strategy to increase your performance, as well as the results of your team. It’s ironic how simple some of the most impactful business tactics are for beating your competition.

The lesson below is an excerpt from the course Building Special Companies, Jeff Martinovich, Ash Press, 2019.

Last week I ordered seven fake-wood filing cabinets and finally organized the mountains of legal documents in my 3rd floor home office. I was reminded of the psychology I was taught years ago to live and work in an open, clean, and as large a space as possible which the budget would permit. I could now breathe again. I wasn’t triggered (to use a ridiculous term!) by viewing these over 500 motions I created with a No. 2 pencil and manual typewriter. Could I even feel my cortisol lower? God knows I need that!

Everyone knows Admiral William H. McRaven’s speech and book, Make Your Bed. The simplicity is brilliant, the advice is gold, and of course my favorite chapter is Don’t back down from the sharks. The advice about making your bed, or cleaning your office and organizing your desk, is super powerful.

Research has consistently shown that working in a cluttered, disorganized, or dirty environment negatively affects mental health over time. The key link lies in the concepts of order and chaos. Human brains unconsciously associate ordered, tidy environments with stability and control. When surrounded by organizational chaos, whether in the form of clutter or outright dirtiness, the mind perceives a lack of control. 

This fuels uncertainty, anxiety, and ultimately stress. Conversely, clean and systematically organized workspaces help employees feel a restored sense of command over their environment – Stone Solutions.

If you’re up for taking it further, I 100% believe a large clean desk invites opportunities, encourages us to keep saying “yes,” and allows certain humans to 10x the productivity of most of the world.

This week, buy the largest desk your budget and your space will allow. Keep it well organized, and everything on it must be intentional. Throw out anything you haven’t touched in twelve months. Any paperwork you still need, put in the credenza and file cabinets (hopefully most can be digital today). Finally, make your office pretty. I love the juxtaposition of nice art and Carleigh’s school creations. Look forward to going there. When your hypnotherapist asks you about your safe place, respond, “your beautiful office.”

Life is a sport. Business is a competition. Take care of the easy things. Give yourself every possible advantage to be #1! Have a great week!