How to Perfectly Organize Your Desk to Stay Productive
Is it hard for you to organize your workspace either at home or in your office? Here are our tried and tested tips on how to perfectly organize your desk to stay productive all day. Organize your desk according to your needs quickly and efficiently.
Do you find hard to concentrate at work? One of the main reasons might be because your desk is not organized as it should be. Even though we know that different types of people prefer to organize their workspace differently, there are a few simple rules that work for everyone.
In this blog post, we will share with you our tips on how to perfectly organize your desk to stay productive.
Many surveys have proven that clutter on a desk has a negative impact on productivity and self-motivation. As we always look for ways how to stay motivated when working from home, we took this information quite seriously.
When you consider how much time you normally spend at work, we think it is pretty important to design your workstation smartly, with an idea in mind. It does not matter whether you work at home and can go wild when creating your workspace, or if you were assigned to a desk in an office by your employer.
There are always ways how to organize your desk to ensure there will be no distractions, you will have everything handy in one place, and you will feel comfortable.
That's super-important, because once you feel comfortable, you can focus, and at the end of the day you will finish more tasks in less time, you will learn how to withstand disruptions, and there will also be less space for procrastination.
As we work from home, we know that staying organized is the key to success.
And we would have never believed that a well-organized desk makes such a difference as it increases discipline.
We also know how is it like to work on the road. In hostels where a chair and a desk in the room are not a standard.
It was much harder to build this blog on the road than it is now from the comfort of our home and carefully organized workspace.
Even though working from home has its pros and cons, the fact that we can organize our workspace as we want is definitely a positive factor.
Cleaning out a desk takes only a couple of minutes of your time, a bit of thinking, your enthusiasm to get things done.
That's something everyone can do. So let's dive into it.
Here are our tips on how to better organize your desk.
START FROM THE SCRATCH
To make sure your desk will be perfectly organized, the best way how to start is to remove all the items you have on your desk right now.
Of course, in the ideal world, you would be starting with a brand new desk and workspace, but that's often not the case.
Go through all the things you find, and sort them according to the importance.
Things that you use daily and are necessary for your work should be on one side, then there will be things that you use for your work only occasionally.
These you will later store in drawers or organizers on the side of your desk, and then there will be items that you never use, that simply had piled up on your desk during the time.
Get rid of these things and be ruthless, evidently, they are useless.
A fresh start is great not only because it is practical, but it will also prepare you mentally for the work which is about to come.
KEEP YOUR DESK CLEAN
Once you removed all superfluous things, it is time to clean your desk. Not only now for the first time, but make from it a habit.
We are not somehow overly orderly, but the tidiness of our workspace is closely connected with our efficiency.
Dust your table, all the corners that are usually hidden and hard to reach. Also, clean all the items you plan on having on your table permanently.
Wipe the laptop screen, keyboard, even the dusty journal that's been lying on your desk for a while now.
We know this is not the funniest way how to start organizing your desk, but even though this advice might seem too obvious, actually many people tend to skip this step.
DESIGN THE DESK LAYOUT
Before you start putting the essential things you need for your work on a desk, wait a second.
You just want to do it right.
There is nothing more annoying than finding out after a couple of days that your desk is not organized the way you wanted, and that you do not feel comfortable sitting behind your desk.
You can picture the final design of your perfectly organized desk in your mind, or draw it on a piece of paper, that often helps.
Put together all the things you know are necessary for your work.
For us, the main tool of work is the laptop.
Then external monitor, keyboard and mouse combo, notepad and pen to write down new ideas, phone, a cup of tea, and that's it.
You should have the screen in the right hight, and not too close to your eyes.
Then the things you use the most should be on your strong hand side, while on the other side there should be enough space for papers, your notes, and simply for things you do not use that often.
Mastering the right desk configuration takes time, but think of it as yet another task that will help you with your productivity. Do not think of it as an annoying thing to do.
The new system should help you work better.
Organizing your workspace is much easier when you work from home, and when you are the boss of your office.
In case you work outside the home, in an office, and the desk that was assigned to you, no worries.
There is always a way how to make your desk organized, even when there is not that much space, or even when you need to share your desk with a colleague.
GET READY YOUR WORK SUPPLIES
Every job is different and requires different kinds of supplies. We do not need much for our work, and only from time to time we write down a note or draw a layout of our site on paper.
But we know that many people love things like sticky notes, highlighters, papers, and so on to stay organized.
Rule number one is to buy really only what you need for your work.
And maybe a few more things that will make you happy. But that's it.
If you need to print something for your work, you should obviously have a printer, cartridge, and stock of printer papers.
KEEP IMPORTANT ITEMS HANDY
To stay productive at work, you should minimize all the possible distractions. That's why you should have everything that you use frequently handy.
Or at least you should know where the item is, so you won't be looking for it for a long time.
If possible, have all the important stuff on your desk all the time.
Nowadays there are so many ways how to stay organized that even piles of papers do not have to take too much space.
DEVELOP YOUR ORGANIZING SYSTEM
Even though we try hard to give you all the tips we know how to perfectly organize your desk, still you need to adjust the system to your personal needs.
If you are like us and do not need many things for your work, you can simply keep all the stuff you require on your desk.
But we know that for example accountants, or in general many people that work in an office for a corporation usually use tons of papers, and it must be stored somewhere.
To stay organized, you need to develop your own organizing system.
Of course, to be as sustainable as possible, it would be best not to print that much, but we know that it is often not possible.
Therefore we recommend you invest in a drawer organizer or a proper shelf, where you can store your stuff.
ADD PERSONAL TOUCH
Everyone wants to feel comfortable behind the work desk. If your workspace looks too impersonal, it is a good idea to add a personal touch that will change the dull place into place with positive vibes. It can be anything.
A photo of your family, a picture of your favorite place, a plant or a talisman you got from your friends.
Just make sure you will not be steadily adding those small gifts and reminders of your personal life.
This way, you can unintentionally, but easily ruin all your efforts.
KEEP IN MIND LIGHTING AND COMFORTABLE CHAIR
The perfect workspace is not only about a well-arranged desk and about having handy all the things you need for your work. Other small details need to click together to create a positive place.
One of the most important things to consider is lighting.
Many people across the world are forced to be all day in an office where artificial light is the only source of light.
If you do not have access to the window, you should really think about what desk lamp to use, to make sure you will not suffer from headaches and eye pain on a daily basis.
The workspace is also not complete without a proper office chair.
It actually is not a small detail, it is a huge topic, as sitting all day on an uncomfortable chair will make you less productive, and it will also cause back and neck pain soon.
You made such an effort to keep your desk organized, do not let it down by not having sufficient equipment in your office.
KEEP YOUR DESK ORGANIZED PERMANENTLY
Probably the hardest part of organizing your desk is to make sure it won't be an only one-time thing.
The best way how to keep your desk organized permanently is to tidy it up before going home. It should not take more than a couple of minutes and it will be much more pleasant to start working the next day when your desk will be perfect.
Remember, that inspiring workspace is one of the things you can affect directly, and it is the easiest way how to ensure that your time in work will be fruitful.
If you have invented your own way how to organize your desk, let us know in the comment section.
We are open to new ideas!
RESOURCES
So what programs we use to keep Laidbacktrip running?
The absolutely necessary expense is purchasing the domain and paying for hosting.
We opted for Squarespace, an all-in-one solution as we like it is clean and straightforward.
But the most popular option among bloggers is Bluehost because you can install Wordpress.org on it.
In the beginning, we were reluctant to pay more for external services.
But we later found that some of them are necessary, and some of them make our work much more comfortable.
We use a professional email, Tailwind that helps us schedule pins for Pinterest and Instagram.
As we use only our own photos, Adobe Creative Cloud that is an excellent tool for editing photos in Lightroom and Photoshop is a must-have.
To improve our writing skills we use Grammarly Premium.
It all costs several hundred dollars per year, but it helps us with our business.
