How a dedicated workspace is critical for
getting things done without going insane

Yesterday, I shared three reasons why I refuse to use WiFi (passing up the opportunity to write novels on a laptop while while slouching on the couch).

There’s a fourth reason, however, and it’s a big one:

I get my best work done if I have a dedicated workspace — whether I’m crafting a story, balancing my bookkeeping, answering emails or creating another to-do list.

The importance of a workstation was cemented for me after reading David Allen’s Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity many years ago. Here’s what he says:

“You’ll need a physical location to serve as a central cockpit of control…. If you don’t already have a dedicated workspace and in-basket, get them now. That goes for students, homemakers, and retirees, too. Everyone must have a physical locus of control from which to deal with everything else….

“If I had to set up an emergency workstation in just a few minutes, I would buy a door, put it on top of two two-drawer filing cabinets (one at each end), place three stack baskets on it, and add a legal pad and pen. That would be my home base (if I had time to sit down, I’d also buy a stool!). Believe it or not, I’ve been in several executive offices that wouldn’t be as functional.

“You must have a focused workspace…. you’ll find a weekend spent setting up a home workstation can make a revolutionary change in your ability to organize your life.”

He's right. For me, having a dedicated workspace feels like the calm eye in the centre of life’s hurricane.

John C.A. Manley

PS For more on the “art of stress-free productivity,” I highly recommend David Allen’s Getting Things Done.

PPS And for the other three reasons I refuse to use WiFry, head on over here.

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.