What's your writing space like?

It might be a corner of the kitchen table, or a desk crammed into a spare bedroom. Maybe, like me, you're lucky enough to have your own study (though it risks becoming a dumping-ground for all the junk in the house...)

When writing time is at a premium, or even when you're just caught up in the flow of writing, it's easy for your writing space to get overtaken by clutter. This can be a distraction when you're trying to get words down, and it may put you off sitting down to write at all.

To make your writing space more welcoming, set a 5 minute timer, and start by clearing any rubbish, then put things back where they belong.

Here's a photo of my own desk right now. This is better than it's often been in the past...

Things you can spot here that have all been part of my writing day: my ergonomic mouse; my cube timer, which I love and which I'm about to use when tidying; the fact that I have somehow accumulated a water bottle, a mug and a glass on my desk, a crisp packet (salt and vinegar crisps are possibly my biggest weekness), Metallica's 72 Seasons album, my "weekly big 3" post-its that I use with my Full Focus Planner... the planner itself is on top of my computer tower, just to the left of the photo.

I've been racing through client work today, and honestly, I probably wouldn't even notice all the clutter till tomorrow, when I'd get to my desk to start work and have to start moving things just to put my fresh mug of tea down. ;-)

That's not an ideal writing environment, and I definitely feel more relaxed and in the zone when I can move around without risking knocking stuff off my desk!

Here's the difference 5 minutes made:

To sort things out, I:

• Threw away rubbish
• Took my mug and glass downstairs and put them in the dishwasher
• Put my pencil and pen back in the pen holder
• Put my Metallica CD on the shelf in the spare bedroom, where my CDs live
• Put some excess pens away in my drawer (why were there so many pens in my monitor stand anyway?!)
• Threw away an old pen
• Took some paper recycling (from inside my monitor stand) downstairs to the recycling bin 
• Dusted down my monitor stand

It literally took 5 minutes, but now my desk definitely looks more inviting.

Even if your desk is in a horrible state and you spend the whole 5 minutes just throwing away empty chocolate wrappers and snack packets, it'll still be a lot better after you've done that.

If you've got a bit longer, you might want to think about things to bring into your writing space.

Maybe you like to have a scented candle burning when you write. Maybe you want to put up an inspiring quote or something lovely that a beta reader said about your work. Perhaps you'd like to have some snacks to hand so you don't end up getting up 10 minutes into a writing session because you've suddenly realised you're peckish.

What would make your writing space more inviting?

Whether it's a quick tidy up or something to help you get in the writing mood, spend just 5 minutes making those improvements today.