“Just clean the office:” Get out of the depression/anxiety spiral | Hacker News Reader

“Just clean the office:” Get out of the depression/anxiety spiral

randallb.dev

36 pointspavlov11 comments

I'd need to find another mantra. After emptying the wastebasket (30 seconds), every object in my office represents a past and/or future project that I haven't the mental bandwidth to prioritize. I'm not quite at hoarder level, yet...

I have a similar problem, and when I finally allocate bandwidth for a project, I can't find relevant objects when I need them.

So I bought a commercial label printer, I made a web app with a database representing a tree of objects/containers with photos and search function, and I am in the process of completely inventoring my stuff (consumables, tools, books, etc).

It's very long to do the inventory, and you have to be very consistent in maintaining the current location of objects in the tree, but the power to find every physical objects as fast as a google search is incredible. When I'm finished I'll be able to start any project and fetch "that old arcane microchip module I bought once 5 years ago" instantly.

And I think not seeing the accumulated mess of dozens of stalled projects will help for my mental clarity.

I do the same, but am using Sortly instead of building my own app:

https://www.sortly.com/

Interesting. Out of interest, how many items do you track and is it just in a work context or for personal stuff too? I was just looking at the pricing and I wondering if this is worth the cost for tracking my home inventory…

This is effective because when depressed, you imagine you have no agency. It's helpful because it's something you can do as soon as you decided to do it, that improves your environment and proves to you that you DO have agency.

Yes, but also because a clean workspace puts you a step closer to meaningful action. It’s easier to cook a good meal if the kitchen is already clean.

When I don’t have the motivation to start something, I’ll often prepare the workspace for the next day. It’s nice to start the day with a lot of the drudgery taken care of.

Our environments deeply impact our mindset and perspective. Lots of clutter is lots of stimulation that leads nowhere or reminds of the past. Its a lot of noise that distracts and hinders, cleaning it works to reduce the noise

I do this, and also I ensure I make my bed every day.

I think that tidying up/cleaning is one of those minor and easy things to do that give almost instant positive feedback and is easy to achieve.

When I am really procrastinating a school or work project, I start cleaning. When my room is very clean, I likely far behind on a deadline. It makes you feel better about yourself.

I like the more general form of this: simply nominate a single activity as "critically important", and then feel sudden surging motivation to do anything and everything else. Sure, that nominated project doesn't get done, but it's a worthy sacrifice to ensure productivity.

I sometimes wonder if you could run a company this way, so you can do work in anyone’s ticket queue, “helping them out”, except work in your own queue.

In some ways it’s like the view of Hell being an endless dining table with giant cutlery and everyone struggling to feed themselves, and heaven being the same place but everyone feeding someone else so it all works out.

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