Spring-cleaning: Tips for cleaning your workspace and decluttering your mind

Here's to hoping you came back from the holiday break with a renewed and refreshed mindset. 

If you see the beginning of every semester as a fresh start, perhaps you're feeling motivated to do some spring cleaning and decluttering in the office. That makes this a great time to recycle stacks of papers, free the computer from space-hogging files, dust off your monitor and give your desk some TLC. 

Hygiene expert Charles Gerba, an environmental microbiologist in the College of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences, has some suggestions for making sure your space doesn't just look clean, but actually IS clean.

With desk phones becoming rarer these days, mobile devices have taken their spot at the top of the list of "fomites" – science speak for objects that can harbor and spread harmful microbes that make people sick.

"The personal cellphone is the worst," Gerba says. "Most people talk 'dirty' all the time without knowing it."

Next is the desk, according to Gerba, who has led studies such as the Healthy Workplace Project, which aims at reducing the spread of viruses in office environments. Regular wiping – disinfecting wipes are best – is key to maintaining a clean workplace surface. 

Fun fact: Keyboards, computer mice and copy machines all harbor more germs than toilet seats. 

Even worse, studies done at the university revealed that some tabletops in break rooms have more fecal bacteria on them than toilet seats, Gerba said, with the reason being that toilets get cleaned and disinfected at least once a day – while tabletops in break rooms might not. 

"Also wash out your coffee cup – E. coli bacteria love caffeine," Gerba says, adding that more than half of cups sampled contained coliform bacteria after being washed with a shared dish sponge. "And if you store food in your desk drawers, clean it out and wipe the surfaces with a disinfecting wipe. We found large numbers of bacteria in desk drawers where people store food."

Digital detox

In the same way a clean workspace is conducive to an enjoyable work experience, decluttering the mind is important as well, says Elsa Loya, a health educator at the Campus Health Service. Loya created a Digital Detox webpage, where she shares tips on finding a healthy balance between the digital and in-person worlds we all inhabit, both in and outside of work. The project came out of a survey showing that 77% of undergraduate students at the U of A have felt the need to cut down or limit their cellphone usage. 

Loya believes that the insights and strategies resulting from her work with students apply to employees as well. 

"The idea of 'digital detox' applies to anybody that deals with technology every day, whether you're a student or not, and that's the majority of people nowadays," she says. "Rather than telling people 'Don't be on your phone,' which is just not realistic, we're thinking about how we can find a balance that works for them."

Finding that balance between necessary device use and mindless scrolling has positive impacts not just on a person's academic or professional success, but also on life as a whole life, including sleep and  mental and physical health. 

One way toward a healthier relationship with digital devices is to try and use them in a more intentional way and ask yourself a few questions before reaching for your phone, Loya says. 

"What am I going to use it for? To make a phone call? To use my calculator? Or because I'm bored? Am I using it because I am procrastinating about something?" she says. 

Being more intentional about phone use won't prevent us from occasionally making less healthy choices, such as succumbing to YouTube when we're trying to go to sleep instead of putting on say, a guided mediation app, but it can still help reduce screen time, Loya adds.

For some, a more fulfilling and less stressful relationship with their phone can begin with placing it where it's less accessible, for example in another room. 

But for those who aren't ready to go cold turkey, there are other options, she says. 

One small tweak Loya recommends trying is to move "tempting" apps off the home screen or put them in folders where they're at least a little bit "out of sight." 

"If you want to do some digital decluttering and delete apps, some questions that can help are, 'How are you using it? How often are you using it? What are you using it for?'"

To combat social media algorithms, which tend to be engineered to keep users hooked on content and scrolling, Loya recommends reflecting on our emotional response. 

"Ask yourself how a page or a feed makes you feel," Loya says. "Do you find yourself thinking, 'I don't like this, it's silly.' Or 'it makes me uncomfortable when I read this.' If that's the case, start unfollowing those accounts, rather than deleting the app right away."

Some may it find helpful to set use limits for certain apps or overall screen time, which can be done using a device's native settings or with third-party apps, some of which require paid subscriptions to be used at full capacity. The app Clearspace, for example, offers an "intentionality layer" that prompts the user to spend a few seconds thinking about why they are about to open a social media feed, for example. 

An app that is popular with students, called one sec, "hits back on the self-awareness piece by making you wait when you want to open an app and making you think about the intentionally of using your phone a little bit more," she says.

Is cutting back easy? 

"No," Loya says. "I try really hard to not just ignore the app limits I set for myself. When it kicks me out, I tell myself, 'OK, that's enough for today.'"

She says the key to healthier digital habits is a mindset that focuses on finding a balance and asking questions like "What is my relationship with my phone? What am I going to do with it when I pick it up?" rather than feeling overwhelmed by unrealistic expectations along the lines of "I'm going to take this away."