How to Organize your Desk (and Keep it Organized..)
Learn how to organize your desk (and keep it organized!) with these 7 tips & suggestions.
If you are working from home right now, or you need your desk for your studies, you will know how important it is to keep it tidy and organized.
It is pretty difficult to be at your most productive if your desk is untidy and you can’t locate or find what you need to. An organized desk is a must!
How does your desk look right now? Is it really organized and actually quite beautiful looking? If so, you don’t need this post!
But is it really out of control? Are there papers everywhere? Do you actually know where everything is on your desk, and in your desk? If this is how it is, you need this post!
If you want to be productive, and stay productive, that has to start with an organized desk. An organized desk greatly improves your focus and productivity, and it just makes you feel so much better!
You shouldn’t be wasting your time looking for things. Everything should have a place on the top of, and inside your desk.
Follow this tips and suggestions for how to get your desk organized, and how to keep it organized!
1.Make the Time to Organize your Desk
Organizing your desk has to be approached as a valid task. You need to set aside the time to do this properly, and thoroughly. A quick tidy up is all very well, but if you want to completely organize, and stay organized, you have got to devote the time to this.
So set aside a block of time, so that you can completely do this organizing project without being interrupted.
If you really don’t have a lot of time to do this in one sitting, you can split the task up over several days. Setting aside an hour a day for instance for a week, for doing this task, would work well. But you have to complete the task.
See these 11 Best Minimal Desk Ideas
2.Consider your Workflow
This is the most important part of organizing your desk (apart from setting aside the time to do this of course).
This is so important because your desk is YOUR desk, not somebody else’s. You are using your desk for whatever you need to do at that desk – for your own workload. Therefore that desk has got to work for you.
Think about what you are doing at your desk, and need to do at your desk. Are you using a desktop computer at that desk, or a laptop? Are you drawing at your desk?
Depending on what you are doing, and need to do at your desk, you will need to ensure there is space to do that, and to store the things that you need to do that.
3.What do you Need to Keep on (and in) your Desk?
If you are an artist you will need to probably store your art supplies on your desk.
If you are running a business from your desk, you will need those tools to hand – computer, files, whatever you need to hand regularly.
Keep in mind how to store and keep what you need at hand on and in your desk.
4.Start Going Through your Desk
Remember this project is to get your desk organized, and to keep it organized. Therefore you will need to start from scratch.
The best way to do this is to remove everything that is on and in your desk.
Create piles of what you remove. Have piles of paperwork that you need to read, to file, to scan, to shred, to take other action on, etc.
Remove anything from your desk that doesn’t belong there. That really could be anything (our desks tend to accumulate things after all).
5.Tackle Those Piles
Start going through those piles that you created one by one.
Start with the most important piles first. The most important files are probably going to be the paperwork that you are going to keep (shredding etc can wait until later).
Go through your piles one by one and deal with them. Scan what needs to be scanned. Shred what needs to be shredded. Read what needs to be read. File what needs to be filed.
But don’t tackle those piles while you are organizing your desk. Spend the time organizing and cleaning your desk first. Then tackle those piles.
6.Buy Organizers for your Desk
You will probably need to buy organizers for your desk to keep it tidy and organized.
But don’t just pick organizing items for your desk because they look pretty. Make sure that everything that you have on and in your desk is for a reason – for a purpose, and has a function.
Shop your own home first for organizers. You may well have some old desk organizers sitting in a cupboard that will still work well.
Check out some great Desk Organizers here!
7.Create Trays for your Paperwork
Going forward with your desk organization, you will always have paperwork to deal with.
You will have things that need to be read, thrown away, shredded, filed, paid etc. So create a way to organize that paperwork going forward.
For any paperwork that needs to be shredded you may want to keep it in a box near your desk. For anything that needs to be acted on create an in-tray on the top of your desk.
You may need several in-trays for your paperwork. You may want to organize your bills that need to be paid, your magazine articles and other articles that you need to read. Organize everything so that it is all in one place and you know immediately what you need to do with that pile.
Take some time to get your desk organized with these tips and suggestions. See how fast an organized desk increases your productivity!
Learn how to organize your desk (and keep it organized!) with these 7 tips & suggestions.