Decluttering isn’t a fad, it’s science.

Your brain is a contextual learner, and right now it’s learned that your desk equals stress.

Adding one simple item to your desk could activate your focus.

My 8 year old took over my office with 3D printed dragons and resin ducks.

When I started my business we converted the spare room into my office and it was glorious.

It was the one room in our house that wasn’t covered in construction paper crafts and stuffed animals.

It was a place I could sit down with a happy sigh, looking at my color-coded book shelves.

It was where I got work done.

But then my daughter got older…her toys multiplied…she needed a desk of her own…and my once organized office was turned into a blanket fort every weekend.

It became a place where I was definitely not getting much work done.

Then I realized I didn’t need an office with a perfect Pinterest aesthetic to get my brain to focus.

I just needed to harness some simple neuroscience.

Turns out, "location, location, location" applies to productivity too

Can scuba divers remember better underwater?

In a classic study, Scottish researchers D. R. Godden and Alan Badley had scuba divers listen to a list of words. The test? Would they remember more words if they were tested again underwater or on land?

They found that when scuba divers learned underwater and were tested underwater, they remembered more words compared to when they had their memory tested later on land.

This happens because our brains are context-dependent learners. Your brain learns based on cues from your senses.

Here’s a more everyday example: What are you training your brain to do in bed?

We’ve all heard the health experts sound the alarm about screens in bed. And how the light messes with your brain’s natural sleep-wake rhythms.

But it’s not just the light coming from that little glowing stress-box you keep in your pocket that’s the problem.

If you hop into bed and grab your phone to scroll, or answer emails, or do anything other than sleep, you're training your brain that bed = not where I sleep.

No wonder we’re all so exhausted.

3 Steps to Give Your Desk a Neuroscience Glow-up

The good news? You can harness your brain’s default contextual learning system to your advantage to create time in your day.

Just give your desk a neuroscience glow-up.

Step #1: Declutter. It isn’t a fad. It’s science.

At this very moment, your brain is filtering an almost infinite amount of sensory information. It’s making lightning-fast decisions about what’s important and what can be ignored.

That cognitive filtering takes energy. It takes brain power.

Clutter matters in your workspace, too. Especially for women.

In a 2009 study at the University of California, Los Angeles found that when women described their homes as cluttered or unfinished, they had higher levels of cortisol (a hormone associated with stress).

Those 3 empty coffee cups on your desk are making your brain work harder.

Do a 5-minute declutter of your workspace. Declutter your desk at the end of each day, so you start your day with a space primed to focus.

Step #2: Re-wild your synapses.

I like my space organized. But I don’t want it to feel like a DMV waiting room. Adding plants can make a positive difference, and there’s science to back me up.

Research in Finland found that five hours a month of nature immersion improves productivity and creativity. The wilder the nature, the better.

But even brief nature time lowers stress hormones and boosts focus.

One study found that taking just a 40-second micro-break to look at a green roof with plants improves focus.

Adding plants (even fake ones like a picture of trees or a fake flower) to your workspace can activate your brilliance.

Step #3: Get a focus activator.

A focus activator is a cue that tells your brain it’s time to get to work — not time to go through emails, answer messages, or scroll through Instagram to see if Taylor Swift’s made any new sourdough starters.

It doesn’t need to be complicated. Keep in mind that our brains are contextual learners. So a visual cue works great.

My focus activator is opening my planner and writing by hand my top daily priorities.

Writing by hand activates more of your brain, and it’s a unique way to signal your brain that it’s time to work (especially when we spend most of our lives on screens).

Your focus activator could be putting your favorite coffee cup on your desk, a brief breathing exercise, or a mantra that you say.

The key: Only put out your focus activator when you want to focus, so you don't teach your brain that it means anything goes.

Giving your desk a quick neuroscience glow-up will save you time every week. But more important than saving time, it’ll save you brain power.

Godden, D. & Baddeley, A. (1975). Context-dependent memory in two natural environments: on land and underwater. British Journal of Psychology, 66, 325-331.

Lee, K. et al. (2015). 40-second green roof views sustain attention: the role of micro-breaks in attention restoration. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 42, 182-189.

Saxbe, D. et al. (2009). No place like home: Home tours correlate with daily patterns of mood and cortisol. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36.

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