Is your desk buried in clutter? Could your workspace use a little more organisation? Re-organising your desk will take time and effort, so it had better be well worth it, right?
Here are the benefits: You will:
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- Be able to find specific items quickly
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- Be more productive
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- Make a good impression on customers and co-workers
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- Benefit psychologically by facing a neat and attractive workspace each day
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- Be better able to focus on your work with less visual distractions.
Step-by-step process to organise your workspace
Step 1. Pull everything off and out of your desk.
Step 2. Now you can clean the desk. Wipe down and dry the surface, the drawers and all the nooks and crannies.
Step 3. Using boxes or bags as temporary containers, sort through your things and group similar items together. Use the following group breakdown as an example and tailor it to fit your particular possessions:
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- Supplies: pencils/pens, paper clips, rubber bands, post-it notes, correction fluid, stapler, etc.
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- Equipment and their accessories: computer, printer, telephone, disks, cables, etc.
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- Filing materials: manila file folders, hanging file folders, tabs, etc.
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- File-able items: account information, forms, letterhead, completed projects, etc.
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- Paperwork that requires action: things to read, calls to return, projects, etc.
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- Reference materials: manuals, catalogues, price lists, binders, etc.
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- Items to put in front of you for easy viewing: company phone list, cheat sheets, etc.
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- Knick-knacks: framed pictures, work awards, etc.
Step 4. Keep a recycle bin and rubbish bin nearby to get rid of things, especially paperwork you don’t need. Ask yourself these questions to help determine what to toss:
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- Is the item an unnecessary duplicate? If the answer is “Yes”, toss it!
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- Is the item current and relevant to my work? If the answer is “No”, toss it!
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- How often will I need to use or refer to this item? If “Never”, toss it!
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- Does this item add anything to other information on hand? If “No”, toss it!
Step 5. Now it is time to define a place for everything. Follow these two rules:
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- Frequency-of-use rule: Items should be placed according to how frequently you need to access them.
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- Items accessed frequently (on a daily basis) should be placed within immediate reach/view.
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- Items used less often (weekly, monthly, or yearly) should be placed further away so that they don’t interfere with your daily work.
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- Grouping or separating rule: Similar items should be placed together, while dissimilar items should be separated from each other.
Step 6. Organise items in storage areas and containers designed to accommodate them. Here are some examples:
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- Action items can be stored on your desktop either in:
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- A paper tray, if you don’t have a lot of material, or
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- Multiple stacking paper trays or a vertical file if you have enough material to sort into different categories, such as TO DO, TO PAY, TO READ, TO FILE.
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- If much of what you do is date related, you can use a tickler system in which you store action items in the folders that correspond to the day/week/month on which you need to complete the items.
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- Stationery like paper clips, rubber bands, pencils/pens, post-it notes, and correction fluid in desktop supply caddies or drawer divider trays designed to organise such items.
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- Arrange the items you need for clear viewing under a clear desk pad or on a tack-able board over your desk.
Step 7. Limit your number of knick-knacks to a minimum and place them in areas on or above your desk that will not interfere with your work.
Step 8. Leave some clear space on the desktop for writing purposes and to give your desk a tidy appearance.
Once you’ve organised your desk, you’ll want to keep it that way.
Suggestions for maintenance
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- Make an immediate decision about what to do with each item that comes across your desk.
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- If you keep files in your desk, go through them at least once a year to purge any old information.
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- Try to put things back in their proper places as soon as you are done using them.
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- Straighten up your desk at the end of each workday. It only takes about five or ten minutes and it is much easier to clean up a day’s worth of mess than a week, month or year’s worth.
Happy organising!
Sources
Five tips for a perfectly organized desk. Retrieved from http://www.styleathome.com/
Ten tips to keep your desk clean, organized & productive. Retrieved from https://timemanagementninja.com/
(Revised by M van Deventer)