5 Tips on How to Organize Your Desk for Maximum Efficiency

If you can’t seem to get any work done in your home office or at your job, maybe it’s time to organize your desk. A cluttered desk can clutter your mind and make you feel overwhelmed, which zaps your productivity. Learn five tips for organizing your desk so you can work as efficiently as possible.

Clear Off Your Desk

When you’re busy at work it doesn’t take long before your desk becomes disheveled and cluttered. Start the decluttering process by clearing everything off your desk and taking inventory. Decide what you really need on your desk and get rid of the rest.

The less that you can put back on your desk, the better. If your modem, hard drive, and printer normally set on your desk, find another place to put these items. Place your modem and hard drive underneath your desk and set a small table next to your desk for the printer. Computer monitors also take up valuable space on a desk. Use a swerve dual monitor arm, that’s available at teknionstore.com, to keep your monitor up off your desk to free up more space.

Use The Trash Can

Go through all the papers, scribbled notes and mail that’s on your desk and throw away what you don’t need. Paper clutter makes a desk look very messy, and it’s hard to find anything. Instead of writing notes and important reminders down on random pieces of paper, write everything down in a notebook. This method not only keeps your desk free from clutter but it’s also convenient.

Organize Your Desk

Besides lowered productivity, studies have shown that a cluttered desk can raise a person’s level of stress. Reduce your anxiety by collecting all your pens, paper clips, and other office supplies and throwing away the broken ones.

Organize these supplies by placing them in containers or trays. Only keep the items you use regularly on your desk. If you don’t use a stapler often, place in your desk drawer and get it out only when you need to.

Clean Out Desk Drawers

Your desk drawers can get very messy and unorganized, and it’s important to keep these cleaned out regularly too. It’s easy to throw something in your desk drawer just to get it out of your sight, but after a while, you don’t even remember what you’ve put in there.

Place like items together in one drawer, such as letterhead, envelopes, and stamps. Store items you use more frequently in the top desk drawers and place items you don’t use very often in the bottom drawers.

Tidy Up Every Day

Make it a habit to clean off your desk every day before you leave the office or if it’s your home desk, straighten it up after every use. Take a minute to clean the surface of your desk and wipe off your computer keyboard and mouse to prevent an overload of germs. When you take a few minutes to tidy up, you’ll start fresh every day with a clean and organized desk, which will make you more productive.

If your desk could use some decluttering, follow these tips for a cleaner and tidier workspace. If you find yourself overwhelmed by a messy desk in the middle of the day, take the time to tidy up and you’ll feel less stressed. After you get in the habit of keeping a tidy desk, you’ll soon realize that your productivity has improved.