Knowledge@Wharton: “…To start, set aside a day in the office to de-clutter and put each item through the “spark joy” test, Jefferson said. “Give people time to decide if all those desk tchotchkes, old stale reports, and books they never got around to reading really deserve a home in their space,” she said. Schedule a donation pick-up or ask for volunteers to drop off the stuff. “It creates an awesome ‘reset’ and the end result is a lighter, more spacious office.” But it’s more than just physical mess one could tidy up. Also focus on the digital stuff that accumulates — the hundreds of emails at work, for example, that have grown wildly out of control. “Your creativity and productivity are significantly impacted by visible clutter in your physical work environment — and equally so — by the degree of disorganization in your email inbox and the number of apps on your smartphone,” said Erin Owen, executive coach in the Wharton Executive Coaching and Feedback Program.

“You can reduce your stress level, improve your mental focus, and reduce the time it takes you to find what you need by removing, recycling, shredding or donating old books, files, papers, and even deleting lesser used apps and removing old digital files to an external hard drive,” Owen continued….”