Kaori Tenshi's Key Ideas from Joy at Work
by Marie Kondo

The trick is to imagine in vivid, motion-picture detail what your whole day will look like after you finish tidying up. That image should include three elements: the physical environment, your behavior, and your feelings. Visualize what your workspace looks like, what you do there, including such things as enjoying a cup of coffee or refreshing aromas; and what you feel when you do that: for example, excited, fulfilled, or content.

Reexamine these ideals from different perspectives, such as productivity, efficiency, and your relationships with the members of your team.

Tidy up properly, all in one go, then designate a place for every single item. Once you know where everything in your workspace is stored, you can keep track of your things even when they start to multiply. Whether tidying your workspace or tidying your home, this is the essence of the Kon-Mari Method. Tidying up a desk takes an average of five hours and, depending on the type of work, can take as little as three. If finding time it’s a problem split into multiple sessions. The important thing is to give yourself a deadline.

There are three types of things that you should keep:

• things that directly spark joy to you personally,
• those that provide functional joy, and
• those that lead to future joy.

These are your criteria for choosing what to keep in your workspace.

If the words spark joy just don’t seem to click in your work setting, feel free to substitute something else that does. E.g. Will this help my company prosper?

Always keep in mind that the reason you are tidying is not to throw things away and declutter your desk but to realize your ideal work life, the one that sparks joy for you.

Let’s start by collecting all of the books in your workspace and piling them in front of you.

One by one, hold each book and ask: Does it spark joy? Does it make me happy to know that it’s nearby? Does it provide important information that helps me do my job better? If the answer is no to all of these questions, show your gratitude by thanking the item for serving you well up to this point. Then let it go.

In the end, the books you’re left with should clearly speak to your values and what you find important

With paperwork, the process will be slightly different. You should still gather all of your paperwork in one place and go through it piece by piece.

But this time, you’ll want to divide your papers into three categories: pending (documents that relate to ongoing matters), save because you must (documents that your job requires you to hold on to), and save because you want to (documents that help you perform your job).

Once you’ve sorted the papers and discarded those that don’t fit into these categories, put them all in vertical hanging files to keep papers easily accessible and retrievable.

Komono (miscellaneous) includes supplies, gadgets, snacks, and other materials you have around to help you work. So, when deciding which komono to keep, it can be helpful to put them into subcategories like office supplies, personal care products, food, and electronic devices.

Remember. Keep only those items that will help make your ideal workplace a reality. If you struggle to let go of a sentimental item snap a photo.

At this stage of the process, you should have only the most essential items with everything in its own designated place. Use dividers and small boxes to keep everything organized

Desktop: To tidy this space up, create a couple of folders, such as “Storage” and “Current Projects,” to get these files organized and off the desktop. Ideally, this space should be used to display an inspirational wallpaper photo and to provide temporary access to the few files that you are working on at the moment.

Hard Drive: you shouldn’t need more than a few main folders like:

1. Current Projects then divided into a few subfolders—one per project;
2. Records including contracts, policies, etc;
3. Saved Work represents an archive of past projects and research.

Only keep what is useful or inspiring.

Your email is a place for dealing with current work. Create folders, ideally no more than ten, to allow you to start organizing emails by category and the project they’re related to.

If you have thousands of uncategorized emails in your inbox, put them all into an archive folder. When you get a new email, either delete it or categorize it into a folder.

It takes around 26 minutes to return to the level of concentration preceding an interruption. Turn off all the obtrusive notifications and set aside blocks of time, at the beginning and end of the workday, to deal with email in a focused manner.

Unsubscribe from all of your current newsletters. Then, just resubscribe to the ones that truly spark joy.

Delete all your apps and only reinstall the ones that matter to you.

Finding joy and harmony in what you do also requires a schedule that’s free of clutter and wasted time. 

Once again, the first step here is to visualize your ideal schedule. What would your perfect day look like? The things you say “yes” to and the events you write into your calendar should bring you closer to this vision, not further away from it.

You can do a similar tidy-up around the time you spend making decisions. Is someone else better-suited to make these decisions? Can someone else be trusted to decide for me? Can this task be automated, or done less frequently?

Visualize your perfect meeting and then write down your regularly scheduled ones onto index cards. As you go through them ask the following questions: Is it required for my job? Does it bring me closer to my ideal work life? Does it bring me joy?

Improve your meetings. If you can’t cancel or avoid an unproductive meeting, there are still ways to make it better. You can start by getting people to be better prepared. Make sure there’s an agenda that includes a strong purpose for the meeting, and that this agenda is shared with everyone beforehand so that the participants can come with some ideas.

Interior Design your workspace Use photos and decorations that spark joy. Use a beautiful notebooks so that even writing notes becomes a joyful experience. Use aromatics to calm or energize your mind.

Self-reflection helps maintain Joy at work. Put aside some time every couple of weeks to consider the work you’ve done and how it aligns with your goals. Without self-reflection, small problems can fester, grow, and become harder to deal with. But if you’re diligent, you can keep that ideal workplace fresh in your mind’s eye and stay on the right path.