A cluttered workspace can negatively impact your stress and anxiety levels, your ability to focus, your sleep cycle, and much more.
Don’t believe us? Well, it’s proved by research that your physical environment can influence your emotions, behavior, cognition, and decision-making.
From a logistical point of view, you lose precious time when you go around looking for a lost document on your messy desk. (Workers spend up to 2.5 hours per day searching for what they need.)
Furthermore, Neuroscientists at Princeton University conducted a study and discovered that when there was too much stuff in sight, people had a more difficult time being productive!
In a nutshell: when your workspace is a mess, so are you. This is why it’s time to acknowledge the role that workspace clutter plays, and try to clean up all the mess!
In this blog, we will share 11 desk organization ideas that will help you keep your workspace clutter free – whether it’s in your home office, a makeshift workspace, or a cabin at your 9-5 job.
1. Get Drawer Organizers
Yes, drawers are really convenient, but they quickly become cramped up and messy. So, if you’re serious about organizing your desk, you have to get drawer organizers right away!
By compartmentalizing items (pens, notes, documents, paper clips) using drawer organizers, you can give them a proper home and add some method to all the madness.
Before buying a drawer organizer, don’t forget to measure the dimensions of your drawer, or you would end up getting one that isn’t suitable for the space and can’t accommodate the items you wanted to organize!
2. Get a Lamp
A lamp is an easy desk upgrade that you can make to improve the utility and charm of your workspace. Whether you need to read over important documents or take notes – a lamp can be quite useful.
Don’t have enough space on your desk for a lamp? No problem! Instead of buying a standard desk lamp, buy a portable floor lamp. It will brighten up your desk without taking up too much space.
When picking out the perfect lamp, always consider the lighting type, brightness, temperature, and range of movement. Dim lighting can make you feel cranky, and lighting that’s too bright can trigger a migraine!
3. Install Floating Shelves
Floating shelves are a great way to make the most of your empty walls. You can keep your documents or any other item on the floating shelves and avoid the mess on your desk.
You can also use these shelves as a mini creative space, and display artwork, photo frames, awards, certificates, etc. Avoid adding too many shelves, as it could ruin the look of your workspace.
Here’s a tip for you: Whenever something new enters your workspace such as a new file or item, quickly decide whether you’ll keep it on the floating shelves or on your desk.
4. Consider The Available Desk Space
A major reason why your desk looks unorganized is that you don’t have enough storage space on your desk – be it in the form of cabinets, drawers, or anything else.
No, you don’t have to go out and buy a new desk. All you need to do is identify the items that you don’t use too often, and stash them away on a nearby shelf or cupboard.
This way, you will have enough space on your desk to complete your tasks. After all, keeping things simple is one of the best ways to organize your desk.
5. Go the Digital Way
Instead of clogging up your workstation with documents, files, and papers, you can create and maintain your documents digitally. This will help you keep your workspace tidy and make you even more productive!
One of the best platforms that can bring order to your document chaos is Bit.ai. It’s a new-age document collaboration platform that helps you create, collaborate, and organize all your documents in one place!
Bit allows you to create fast dynamic notes, documents, wikis, knowledge bases, projects, client deliverables, technical docs, training manuals, and client portals, to-do lists while integrating across the apps you work with!
On Bit, you can create smart workspaces around projects, teams, departments, and clients to keep your documents and data organized. To learn more about Bit.ai, click here.
6. Place a Bin Near Your Desk
Like we said before, clutter is your number one enemy. Place a trash can near your desk so that you can get rid of stuff that you don’t need right away – rather than putting it on your desk.
There’s already enough stress when you are working. All those useless papers, stationery items, used napkins, leftover food, and other unwanted stuff just increase the stress!
When you will have a trash can right next to you, you can dispose of all the unnecessary items right then. You won’t have to ponder where, when, and how to discard items.
7. Color Code Your Files
People recognize colors way faster than they can read the text! So, you can develop and implement a color-coding strategy for your documents, files, and folders.
First, group your files into different categories such as type of project, department, team, or any other system that fits your needs. Then, assign a color to each of these categories.
It’s best to pick colors that associate with the category. For example, you can assign red color to important files, yellow color to client documents, and green color to research papers.
8. Get a Personalized Desk Calendar
A calendar can be one of the coolest (and most inexpensive) accessories for your desk. It doesn’t just add a little shine to your desk, but also helps you keep track of your obligations, appointments, and meetings.
You must be wondering, “Why can’t I just use a calendar on my phone?’. Well, writing down your appointments and events actually helps you remember them better (and gives you a chance to step away from the screen).
The end result? You will feel more productive, focused, and in command of your schedule! After all, it will be the very first thing that you see when you get to work.
9. Clean, Clean & Clean
Your desk often gets submerged underneath the daily tasks. You devote all your time and attention to your work (as you should), but your desk keeps getting dirtier and full of dust.
The only way to get rid of dust is by not allowing it to build up! Run a paper towel or cloth across the desk, your computer, and your filing cabinets – every single day.
You can set your alarm to go off at a certain time. This way, you won’t forget that you need to clean your desk, take the garbage out, and organize your files!
10. Untwist Your Cords
Almost every work desk has one thing in common: cable clutter. Yes, we’re trying to go wireless, but there are still so many cords just lying around, making your desk appear chaotic.
Well, your cords, adapters, plugs, wires, and chargers don’t always have to remain a tangled mess! If you have an empty drawer, you can use it to keep your cords, adapters, chargers,
If you don’t have the space, you can bundle all the strands with cable ties, buy a cable holder and attach it to your desk, or group all your cords together with binder clips.
11. Comfort Comes First
Organizing your desk isn’t enough. You have to make sure that your workspace is comfortable. ‘Comfort’ in the workspace might mean different things to different people. However, in general, you can:
- Use a comfortable chair at the computer height, so that you don’t end up curving your spine.
- Keep your feet from sweating excessively by wearing indoor shoes or slippers.
- Use natural lighting if you can, as it gives you Vitamin D and dopamine. It will increase your productivity levels and also improve your eyesight!
Wrapping Up
A tidy desk gives you much more space to get things done and more room to be creative! When your desk is organized, you will be more prepared to handle any task that comes your way.
That’s not it! A clean and simple desk will help you focus better and be more productive – two things that are extremely important when you are working.
Now, all you need to do is follow the tips that we’ve mentioned above and you will have the perfect workspace in no time. Even a few minor changes to your workspace can have a significant impact!
Have we missed your favorite desk organization tip? Which one do you love the most? Is there any other desk organization tip that we have not mentioned? Tweet us @bit_docs and let us know. Cheers!
Further Reads:
The Best Way To Organize All Of Your Work And Get Rid Of Chaos!
Virtual Workspace: 9 Tools to Work Digitally With Team!
How Bit.ai Can Help Students Better Manage Their Schoolwork?
9 Ways to Improve Work Performance in 2022
Work Breakdown Structure: Definition, Types, Importance & Process!
