Fragmentation — Streamline your work space

Fragmentation.

Recent trips and my current living situation have left me feeling scattered.

Most of my belongings are packed in boxes, even after ~2 years of moving out of the apartment. — Because I “might be moving, but I don’t know when, so I better not unpack and get comfortable.”

Work files and footage have been split between laptop and computer, requiring me to flip-flop back and forth a lot.

Travel bags were holding many of my ‘daily essentials,’ because I “might be traveling soon, but I don’t know when.”

Life began to feel cumbersome doing simple things like brushing my teeth, find my hair brush, using my daily journal, etc.

It revealed a core issue of my day to day:

Life was feeling fragmented.

I think it always had for the past couple years, but it became more obvious as a result of just a week of travel — followed by weeks of “maybe” intentions to travel again.

A little fragmentation is normal, but this fragmentation has quietly, subtlety caused disruption that kept getting worse.

The majority of my time is NOT spent traveling nor searching for a place to live.

I subconsciously feel like I’m “right on the edge” of the next big trip or the “new home.” 

But I’m not. Not in the day-to-day. Not until a NEW decision is made.

My belongings are in a state of “READY FOR TRANSIT”, while the reality of my day-to-day and engagement in life is STATIONARY.

As a result, I am both not enjoying travel NOR am I enjoying an optimal environment that would help me work and focus — because everything is fragmented between different intentions and realities.

The MOMENT I decide I’m going to travel, or move – sure, then it makes sense to pack things up because the day-to-day reality IS transition.

However, if it’s not in my top priorities, then I should set my environment up in a way that supports what my priorities actually are.

So — I am radically optimizing my environment based on the reality of my “now”:

EVERY possible thing related to work, writing, video, etc. is moved into ONE room. (Not split between 2-3 different areas.)

Every possible paperwork or equipment I need is now reachable within seconds.

Taking “travel” off of my agenda-of-now, all my files have moved to my main computer. (Now I don’t need to flip-flop between 2 computers to get something done.)

I can get into and stay in flow more easily and for longer.

My desk now remains as clean and SIMPLE as possible. Re-attaching my monitor arm has freed up so much space and allows me to feel calm and focused on the most important task at the moment.

Fragmentation is normal as time goes on and to be expected during certain stages of life, but when possible:

It’s worth taking some time to defragment your workspace and day-to-day.

What’re your favorite ways of “defragging,” streamlining, or simplifying your workspace / day-to-day?

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