How to organize your desk in 5 min

If you really want to get the most out of life, you need to be organized. This is especially true at work. It lets you be more productive which fosters financial success and that empowers you to live the good life.

What are the advantages of organizing a desk?

If your work space is disorganized, you can spend up to an hour a day just looking for stuff you need to get your job done. If you really want to clock out after eight hours so you can have a life, you really need to make every minute count.

This is true whether you are a corporate drone or run your own small business. There are no exceptions. After all, “time is money” as they say.

Instead of digging through drawers and file cabinets hunting for things, you can just confidently reach for pens, papers, and other essentials as you need them. It will not only save you time, it will bring your stress levels down and improve your overall functioning.

 

How to organize cables and cords?

These days, you can buy a variety of cable organizers to help things look neat and clean. If you don’t do so, a tangle of cables is likely to be a visual distraction that interferes with your ability to concentrate.

It can also be a tripping hazard. You want them out of the way and, ideally, tucked behind furniture, not hanging out everywhere.

You may also want to color code them. A black cable to charge your cell phone and white one to charge your tablet can make sure the cords never get mixed up again.

Ideally, you should clear your work space and rebuild it from the ground up. After removing everything from all surfaces and drawers, do a thorough cleaning. Then start putting stuff back.

Start with the big stuff first, like your main computer. Make sure it is comfortably oriented and has an ergonomic keyboard

Make sure there is a place for everything and everything is in its place. Put frequently used items closer to hand and infrequently used items a little further out.

If you no longer do a lot of hand-written notes, you might want to carve out some surface space for your cell phone and tablet and stick pens and paper in the top drawer so they are handy if you need them.

How to Keep Cables From Falling Off the Office Desk?

This will largely depend on where the electrical outlet is, how many cables you need to organize and what orientation is required to make them functional. A best practice it to make sure they run to the back and down behind the furniture.

If that isn’t possible, you may need to invest in some cable organizers. If cables are running down the side of the furniture, you will need to do more to corral them. You may want Velcro organizers to gather them together and get them out of the way.

If you frequently unplug small electronics and you find that the cable falls to the floor, you should look for organizers that will help stick the cable to the surface. You want to be able to handily find it again so you plug back in, even though the cable will tend to fall off and end up on the floor when it isn’t plugged in.

Think about how you use devices with cables and do a little research into what products are available, then shop accordingly.

How should I set my desk for productivity?

This will depend on the kinds of work you do. If you frequently read things off of paper and type them up, you may want a copy holder of some sort to free both hands to type.

If you frequently use a stapler and scissors, you will want to keep such tools nearby. If you print a lot of letters for mailing, you may want a letter sorter.

Look at your workflow and think about where you wind up with snags. Go looking for organizers that may help you with some areas that aren’t currently working well.

Again, things you use frequently should be within easy reach without stretching. Ideally, they should be available without opening any drawers either.

The less frequently you use something, the farther away and less accessible it can be without hurting your workflow. It’s fine if some things are in a locked cabinet and you need to swivel your chair around to reach them. It is not fine if you need to go through that entire process every few minutes.

If you are spending an excess of time accessing certain things, those things need to be made more accessible. Future you will thank you for doing so.

Conclusion

Modern workflows are different from back when we had typewriters and everything was printed out on paper. There can still be papers involved in getting a job done, but a lot more gets done electronically.

In days of old, organizing pen, papers, paper clips and similar were the most important parts of the process. Not so these days.

Now, electronics take up a larger share of our work lives. With small electronics come many loose cables.

It’s more important than ever to invest in some good cable organizers. That may be the only way to tame the clutter that work spaces tend to attract.

A clean work space roughly correlates to a clean mind. In other words, it’s a space in which you can more readily concentrate and get things done.

Resist the urge to add a whole lot of mementos and other personal items. You may get more done if you take something of a zen approach and keep your space minimal, neat and clean.

Save your decorating urges for your home life. That will make it easier to get things done and then leave your work worries at the office when you clock out.