How Tidy is Your Office Desk?

Some of us have incredibly messy ones. Others have impressively neat and tidy ones. More still have ones that are somewhere in between the two.



We’re talking about office desks of course, and the various states they are normally found in. But while you may not naturally be a neat freak, you may find it much easier to work if you keep your desk relatively tidy all the time. The main reason for this is that paperwork and other items will be much easier to find if everything has its own place to be. If you end up with everything in a mess you will waste a lot of time looking for relevant paperwork whenever you need it.



So where do you begin if you are staring at your desk now and you cannot remember what colour the top of it actually is?



The best course of action is to allocate a couple of hours on a slow day at work to tidy things up. It is counterproductive to try and do it at the same time you are working, because you will end up doing things twice and taking a lot longer about it than you should.

Your main workspace – this could be where you sit in front of a computer for example – should always be clear. This would provide space for your keyboard and for you to comfortably work. The best way to tidy your desk properly is to think about what you normally have around you when you are working. Do you need books, notes, some paper and pens to scribble ideas down? It could depend on what job you do of course. Only you will know which items you need to have closest to you.



Some of these can be kept on the desktop all the time. For example you may have a pen pot for all those essential stationery items. You may also have a filing tray for paperwork. Alternatively you may opt to keep most things in a filing cabinet or drawer system near to where you are sitting.



Whatever you plan to do, the main aim is to keep your desk free from clutter. It may actually take a while to find a solution that works best for you. For example you might think that your paperwork is best off in a drawer. But on using that solution you may prefer to keep it on top of your desk all the time you need it. This could be good for current jobs you are working on.



Of course the main items on your desk will be your computer, office phones and perhaps a printer too. But when it comes to everything else, you may find there is less that needs to be there than you think.



Paul Buchanan writes for a digital marketing agency. This article has been commissioned by a client of said agency. This article is not designed to promote, but should be considered professional content.