This is Gretchen Rubins 10-minute end of day ritual to help you

This is Gretchen Rubin's 10-minute end of day ritual to help you This is Gretchen Rubin's 10-minute end of day ritual to help you Surely you know the sinking feeling of walking into work, ready to start the day â€" if only you could find you desk under all that stuff you didn’t clear off the evening before.There’s an easy, ten-minute end-of-workday ritual to prevent that, says bestselling author and happiness expert Gretchen Rubin told CNBC’s Make It.Follow Ladders on Flipboard!Follow Ladders’ magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and more!“At the end of my work day, I take 10 minutes and kind of put everything away that I can,” Rubin says. “I don’t do deep cleaning or deep clutter cleaning, but I will put things in their places.” She calls it the 10-minute closer.The tip comes from her upcoming book, “Outer Order, Inner Calm.” In the book, Rubin also recommends as part of the 10-minute ritual doing everything from glancing at the next day’s calendar so you know what to expect, throwing away trash, putting loose change in a cup, putting away pens, rubber bands, and other office supplies, and tossing any paper clutter you no longer need.The tidying up also serves as a transition, she says, which she believes we need as we move from our work selves to home selves.But most importantly, “it makes it a lot easier to start working the next day. It’s a lot easier to just sit back down in the chair if I’m not fighting my way through a bunch of junk from the previous day.”Speaking of clutter…Earlier this week, Rubin wrote a primer on her blog on how to beat the most insidious type of clutter of all â€" paper clutter. It’s probably one of the main items you’ll be clearing off your desk during the 10-minute end-of-workday ritual she recommends. It’s also the hardest to part with â€" what if it’s something you might need someday? For that very feeling of anxiety â€" that you might regret throwing something away â€" Rubin suggests creating a “holding box.” Put hard-to-part-with papers in there for six months, “even a year, if you’re really worried,” as see how you feel then. One of the most essential questions, Rubin says, is this: Can you get this material online? If so, then you don’t need to save the paper copy. Another good tip is: Have you ever used or referenced this piece of paper? If not, you might not need it at all. You might also enjoy… New neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happy Strangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds 10 lessons from Benjamin Franklin’s daily schedule that will double your productivity The worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs 10 habits of mentally strong people