Clean Desk Policy: The office equivalent of "mindfulness"

A Clean Desk Policy is an effective method to secure and/or classify data, increase productivity and/or mindfulness and present a good image of the company to its external and internal customers. From the standpoint of security and/or classifying data, only digital versions of documents are used. Stored on computers and protected by passwords, encryptions or whatever is necessary to properly secure, they are less vulnerable to theft and/or loss and are readily accessible by those authorized. Clean desks render the office as a "virtual whiteboard" whereby every desk is a space to create something new, something progressive and something that can help the company grow in some fashion or another. It's the office equivalent of "mindfulness" because the environment is absent of many of the typical distractions, the least of which are the papers on one's desk that one "still has to get to" many of which become buried in the heap until they're no longer relevant, and worse yet, the pile of papers creates a state of chronic "putting out fires" as it's typically only the top papers that are ever really acted upon. Add to that the pride the company can take in its professional appearance to external and internal customers, and you have a policy worth implementing as the benefits over time will likely outweigh the cost and pain of changing the work habits that lead to cluttered desks. Fabien Mitaux (special contributor) is an intern at Tyga-Box from France who researched and generated first draft and Nadine Cino LEED AP, is a regular contributor to the greater purpose of generating SustainAble action, and is CEO and co-Inventor of the Tyga-Box System, New York, N.Y.