Charles Duhigg is a best selling author of two great books on productivity and efficiency: The Power of Habit and Smarter, Faster, Better. Late last year he was interviewed on the KonMari web site, the online home of Marie Kondo, best known for her best seller, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up.
In the interview, Charles was asked about how physical environments help shape our habits. His response was enlightening:
“Physical organization has a huge impact on how we work. For example, I have a habit of taking the pile of paper on my desk and cleaning it out before I work. When my physical surrounding is organized, I feel like my thinking is organized as well. Some people say they find that when they are doing creative work, some clutter on the desk can make them feel more productive. There is no one set way to be productive at work – the physical space primarily works as a cue to a habit, like getting to work in a productive mindset.”
Read the rest of the interview at on the KonMari web site.
Physical actions are visible to other people such as calling someone on the phone, typing an email, drafting a memo, or talking to a colleague. A common trap is to believe that “thinking” about an item is a next action. Thinking could be part of a next action if that process is accompanied by a physical movement to capture the ideas, such as drawing a mind map.
book that provides an answer to this dilemma. In 
Sometimes when we think about the effort it will take to get organized a negative reaction will arise. Is it really worth all the time and energy necessary to put things in their right spot? How about the constant practice of getting things out of your head – sounds like a pain! Can’t we just relax and have fun?
“Imagine if we had a learning curriculum for modern knowledge work.
Why do I use the word “efficient” to describe this path of librarianship? In my article, 
n his recent book, 
The other day I received the following email from 
“A typical question I get is, “What’s the one thing that we do that gets in the way of us being productive?” It’s not one thing, but five, all wrapped together: People keep stuff in their head. They don’t decide what they need to do about stuff they know they need to do something about. They don’t organize action reminders and support materials in functional categories. They don’t maintain and review a complete and objective inventory of their commitments. Then they waste energy and burn out, allowing their busy-ness to be driven by what’s latest and loudest, hoping it’s the right thing to do but never feeling the relief that it is.”
Efficient Librarian 