Don't let a cluttered work desk mess up your career

THE words "decluttering" and "spring-cleaning" have got to be some of the unsexiest phrases that ever existed - well, to me, anyway. When it comes to office desks in particular, my philosophy has always been as long as there are no bugs and I can (more or less) find what I need, all is well.

While my more zealous neighbours endeavour to keep their workspaces tidy and homely with decorations such as photos and even teddy bears, mine can be basically described as piles of papers with a bit of space in the middle for my laptop and coffee mug. Well, I tried to spruce up the place with a terrarium (minimal effort!) and some flowers which were alive when I brought them in - they're now in various states of decay and still sitting on my desk. But hey, it's not like I'm intruding into my office neighbour's territory or anything. I have always kept to the partition in our workspace like the DMZ - all the mess is very carefully contained up to one centimetre on my side. You're welcome, neighbour. But my faith in my ability to locate the necessary on my desk is apparently quite ... misplaced. Recently, a colleague had asked for a contact's name-card, but after scouring the piles of documents for at least 15 minutes, I had to sheepishly tell him I couldn't find it. This episode left me to conclude that what I deem an organised mess, is really not that organised after all.

Of late, a few people have sent me video links on Japanese minimalist living spaces (wait - is that a hint?) where everything is perfectly placed and organised. I have watched them most wistfully and resigned myself to just not being that type of person. One minor celebrity that caught my attention was Marie Kondo, a Japanese organising extraordinaire and bestselling author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. Believe it or not, her approach - also known as the KonMari method - consists of keeping only things that "spark joy" and literally saying thank you to items that no longer serve you. No, seriously, Ms Kondo believes that all items are alive and have a spirit that should be respected. While it may be easy to dismiss Ms Kondo as a crackpot with an OCD problem, there must be some kind of reason why this woman has a cult following. I mean, she was even listed on Time's 100 Most Influential People in 2015.