Marie Kondo on how to actually have a home office (and sort your emails!)

Marie Kondo seems to be a woman who is always having a renaissance: when her first book, The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up, was published in Japan it was a runaway success; when it was released in English it was a success once more. Years later, her Netflix series brought her approach to cleaning one's house – by collating all your possessions by category and discarding things that don't spark joy – to an even bigger audience, each time producing as much consternation as it did satisfaction.

“I was surprised at how many people were adopting the method,” she said when we spoke over email the other day. “I’ve always been very passionate about my mission to organise the world, so I’ve been thrilled and humbled by such a large response.” Now she's back with another book – Joy At Work – which takes her KonMari technique to the office. Or, more appropriately for right now, the home office.

Working with psychologist Scott Sonenshein, Kondo has now taken her particular brand of life maintenance to your desk setup and your inbox. Now that we're all working remotely, it felt like the perfect time to ask her: is this the right time to KonMari our emails, our workspace and, perhaps, even our whole darn lives? Below, Kondo outlines some of the steps you can take right now.

GQ: How did Joy At Work come to be?

Marie Kondo: Since the publication of my first book, one question has come up again and again: “How can I tidy my workspace and have a career that sparks joy?”

My coauthor Scott Sonenshein and I wrote Joy At Work to offer tips and tools for having a joy-sparking career. Tidying the workspace – as well as our tasks, meetings, email and the like – can help us to become more organised, achieve better results and find joy on the job.

When we ask ourselves what sparks joy, we reconnect with our inner self and discover what’s really important to us. This approach can be applied to all aspects of life, from your home to your career.

Are you seeing any of the techniques in the book already get picked up widely by readers?

Now that many of us are working at home, people have been asking for tips on how to create a tidy and productive workspace there. My team and I have seen an uptick in shares of tidied home office spaces on our social platforms – it’s encouraging and inspiring to see.

How did it change your process to work with a psychologist like Scott Sonenshein? Did it help or hinder your usual way of applying KonMari to situations?

Seeing the data from Scott’s research – such as conclusive evidence that clutter reduces productivity and can lower self-esteem – was powerful. Scott’s work backs up the intuitive theories that have shaped my tidying method. Our different approaches are really complementary – mining the intersections was fascinating.

What are some of the ways a workspace/way of working can be cluttered that people might not even see as clutter at this current moment?

Things like meetings, tasks and decision-making can take up a lot of mental bandwidth – we address how to tidy time and responsibilities in Joy At Work. To tidy decisions, for example, start by organising your decisions into three categories: low-stakes, medium-stakes and high-stakes. Many low-stakes decisions can be automated – President Obama famously only wore gray or blue suits to cut down on the number of decisions he had to make in a day! Sort through your medium and high-stakes decisions and isolate those that are critical for the work you do. Prioritise those and – as much as possible – automate or delegate the rest.

As we all work from home to help stem the spread of coronavirus, what are some things that our readers can take on board now for fixing up their workspace?

If you don’t have a home office, identify the items that are crucial to getting your work done and designate a clear spot for them – a box or portable carrier will do. When it’s time to work, move all unrelated items off of your workspace and add one thing that sparks joy when you look at it – I always keep a crystal or small vase of fresh flowers on my desk. I also suggest doing something that marks the start of your work day. I strike a tuning fork and diffuse essential oils to signal to my body that I’m switching gears.

Are there some vital differences between KonMari-ing a home workspace over an office space?

The fundamental philosophy is the same: keep what sparks joy and is essential to supporting your vision of an ideal life. In a work environment, certain tasks or objects may not spark personal joy, but if they are vital to your role or part of your core responsibilities, you obviously can’t discard them. The same is true at home: functional items (such as a toilet bowl cleaner) may not spark joy, but the end result of a clean bathroom most likely does!

At home and at work, it’s important to tidy by category – not by location – in the order set out in the KonMari Method: clothes, books, paper, komono (miscellaneous items) and sentimental items. When tidying a workspace, you can skip clothes and go straight to books! Then, for each category, choose what to keep based on whether or not it sparks joy and give it a designated home.

Talk me through KonMari-ing emails – I feel like we could all be doing more of that. What are some of the things you recommend fixing?

In Joy At Work, my co-author Scott Sonenshein reports that the typical office worker spends about half their day sorting through emails and that most people believe emails keeps them from getting essential work done.

My advice is to process your emails on a daily basis. Schedule one or two blocks of time during the day to go through them – this will minimise distractions and allow you to focus on the work that matters most. Organise emails in a select group of folders – I recommend no more than ten.

When new messages come in, shift from thinking that everything gets kept to thinking that everything gets discarded – unless there’s a good reason to keep it. Ask the following questions:

Do I need to keep this email to get my job done in the future?

Will reading this email again provide knowledge, inspiration or motivation for future work?

Does this email spark joy?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, store the email in the appropriate folder and move on to the next.

What are some of the things you’ve seen people misunderstand about KonMari since The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying and what would you like to clarify?

The KonMari Method is often associated with minimalism, but the philosophies are actually quite different. While both share the belief that individuals can improve the quality of their lives by taking stock of their belongings, the KonMari Method doesn’t suggest that the way to do so is by owning fewer things.

I think the reason my method has been conflated with minimalism is because most people discover while tidying that they’ve been living with items that don’t spark joy – and they suddenly feel empowered to let them go with gratitude.

If minimalism is a lifestyle that sparks joy for someone, that’s fine! Similarly, if having more items sparks joy, that’s fine too. Joy is personal and only you can decide the number of items that gives you a thrill of delight.

How have your techniques changed and developed in your own life?

I used to be a perfectionist when it came to tidying my house, but it became difficult to maintain that standard after having my children, especially after my second daughter was born. So much more was out of my control! It’s common for people raising young children to feel overwhelmed. I hope my openness on the subject will help others to ease up on impossible standards and focus on the parts of parenting – and life, in general – that bring them joy.

Now that we’re here in this phase of self-isolation, is now a good time to try and KonMari your life?

Yes, absolutely! A true tidying festival can take several weeks – I’ve had some clients who took months to complete theirs, though I don’t advise stretching it out that long if you can avoid it.

If so, what should people be starting with and what should one work through?

The first step in my tidying method is to imagine your ideal lifestyle. For some, this vision might be to surround yourself with the bare essentials, for others it could mean living in a home teeming with beloved art, books, collections and heirlooms. Joy is personal. Each individual’s ideal life, and space, will look different from the next.

Then, begin tidying by category – not by location – in this order: clothes, books, paper, komono (miscellaneous items) and sentimental items. For each category, choose what to keep based on whether or not it sparks joy and give it a designated home. It sounds simple, but it really is life-changing!

Written by David Levesley.

This article originally appeared on GQ UK.