Making Your Desk Work With You

Ever felt like you’re fighting with your desk—like the longer you sit at it the less it seems to suit the way you work? You’re not alone.

We all fight with our desks more often than we realize. We sit at them long enough to do our job and leave them cluttered and disorganized. It isn’t long before we can barely see our desks at all. But if we remember a few basic pointers, we can reduce the time we spend fighting with our desks and increase the time we spend working with them.

Space to Work

A desk’s main purpose is to provide a work surface. Decide what you plan to do with that surface and make sure you have the room to do it. If the kind of work you do requires a lot of open surface area, utilize vertical desk organizers and wall organizers to give you enough space. Smaller items like staples, erasers, and paperclips are prone to wander if you don’t have a way to contain them.

Organize by Priority, Nearest to Farthest

Remember, the most important thing in your office is you. Everything else in your office should be organized in concentric circles around you in order of priority. The things you access most should be closest to you. Those things you access least can be farther away. You should be able to access everything you need with minimal effort.

Keep Your Supplies on Your Dominant Side

If you’re right handed you’ll tend to turn to your right to access items you need. Don’t fight it. Set up your office with your supplies on the right of your computer. Your file organizer, inbox, planner, and phone should be easy to access with your dominant hand.

Have Only What You Need Out

Your desktop file organizer should only have the folders you will need on a given day. All other folders should remain in the file drawer. Too many items out will clutter your workspace.

Desk Drawers

Drawers can turn into clutter buckets really fast. Divide your drawers with boxes, containers, and other organizers to make them make sense, and to keep like items together. Drawer organizers are also a great way to keep things from rolling to the back of your drawer never to be found again.

In And Out Boxes Are A Must

 They give you a visual reminder of what you need to accomplish each day. And since most of the things you staple end up in one of these boxes, you should keep your stapler near them, rather than in a drawer.

Keep At It

Evaluating, categorizing, and organizing items can be a tedious process, but keep at it. Even if you start feeling overwhelmed. Once you’ve got your system in place, it will be much less work to keep it that way.

These basic pointers should help you get more out of your desk and the time you spend there. We’re sure you have more ideas. We’d love to hear them—just leave us a comment and share your thoughts.

Good luck.