Easy ways to keep your desk from becoming cluttered

Is your desk overly cluttered?

Clutter is a hindrance to your productivity. Your brain is trying to process too much information when you have stuff on your desk reminding you of all of your projects. If your desk has gotten out of control, it’s time to straighten up. Here are some tips to help you find the surface of your desk and focus on your job.

• Start with a blank slate. Clean everything out of your drawers and from on top of your desk.  Categorize your belongings by putting them into boxes. Keep the boxes close for a few days as you add back to your desk what you absolutely use. If you don’t need something after a week, you probably don’t need it cluttering up your desk. Take care of the items in each box.
• Evaluate what you absolutely need. Clutter evolves because the brain tricks you into thinking everything is important. Make good choices about what you keep on your desk.
Read also: Confessions of a clean desk addict
• Consider how you work. If you write with your right hand, putting the pens on the left side of your desk is not efficient. The flow of what you keep in your desk is very important.
• Give everything on your desk a home. Remember #3.
• Tame the smaller items with canisters or boxes.
• Get your electronic cables under control. There are a number of products that keep them from becoming a tangled mess.
• Stop printing out documents and emails with information you want to keep. Utilize the cloud to save documents that you want to reference. It’s much easier to search through Dropbox or Evernote for information than to shuffle through a stack of papers.
• Take five or ten minutes every day to straighten up. When you come back to the office the next morning, you’ll feel ready to start the day with a clean desk. It will help you keep the clutter under control, and the act of cleaning up makes you leave the work problems on your desk and not take them home.

Although you may have a high tolerance for clutter, consider how your desk appears to clients. They want to see some organization and have the guarantee that you’ll protect their information. You’ll get more done when you have a cleaner work surface. You will look professional and be more focused.