INVEST IN STORAGE FURNITURE
If you have control over the furniture in your office, then one effective way to keep your work space organised is to select furniture items that double up as storage units. Storage furniture can really help to minimise clutter and increase the amount of desk space available. For instance, choose a desk that has drawers and shelves to store important documents, books, stationery along with other loose items including sunglasses and headphones. If you can’t go as far as buying a brand new desk, opt for a desktop document storage system.
KEEP A BIN BESIDE YOUR DESK
How often do you look at a piece of paper and think “I’ll throw that away when I’m next up” and then forget about it, until it has become a permanent fixture on your desk. Keep a bin beside your desk so that you can easily dispose of junk mail, old documents and post-its with illegible scribbles that you’ll never look at again. Do your bit for the environment and make that a recycling bin!
ORGANISE CABLES
Computer cables and chargers can be unsightly and distracting. One of the simplest solutions is to buy a cable holder for your desk. Take organisation one step further and label your cables so you can clearly identify which lead to unplug when.
GET A JUNK JAR
Elastic bands, loose change and other random items will inevitably make their way on to your desk over the course of the week, and it’s all too easy to glaze over their presence. Get a simple glass jar (an old peanut butter pot, say, or a jam jar – washed out of course) and keep it in the corner of your desk. Every time you find a stray paperclip or coin, pop it in the jar. Even if you never go through the jar, it’ll make your work space look far more organised.
DIVIDE UP YOUR WORK AREA
Depending on what line of work you are in, you should segment your work area into spaces for different duties. Have one area dedicated to computer-orientated work and digital activities, and another area set aside for writing or drawing. Even if you only have your desk to work with, get a decent sized desk and find a way to partition the work you do on it.
TIDY YOUR DESK BEFORE YOU HEAD HOME
Make an effort to organise your work space before you head home so that when you come in in the morning, you can get straight to work without battling with stray documents and dirty mugs. Throw away any rubbish, load cups into the dishwasher, stack documents in priority order and put pens back in their place. This will take just a couple of minutes, but it will mean you can come in and start afresh in the morning.
As the saying goes, tidy desk, tidy mind. Finding simple ways to save space by organising items and removing clutter will help you to keep your work space tidy and your mind clear.
Credit; Barney Cotton / BusinessLeader.co.uk
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