If you’ve been having a hard time concentrating while working or studying, or are feeling unproductive, you may want to look at your desk as a cause of this. We’ve all been there, deciding one day that you’re going to thoroughly tidy your workspace and either it never happens, or within a week the mess slowly builds back up. According to research completed by the Journal of Neuroscience, a messy environment can compete for your attention and can mean that you become less focused, can cause stress and even anxiety. So, the sooner you clear your workspace the quicker you can boost your productivity and effectiveness.

1. Start with a clean sheet

The best way to start clearing something is to start from scratch. It’s much easier to clear everything off your desk and assess its importance later than to go through every item one by one. So clear everything off the top of your desk. Remove all books, pens, pencils and even your computer and monitor (if you have one). Once you’ve removed all the clutter off the desk, it’ll be much easier to figure out how you want your desk to look and where you want things to go.

Once you’ve done this, take the opportunity to clean the desk. Take a surface cleaner and remove dust, stains or any other mess that’s on the desk. Your desk should look brand new and ready to be used efficiently again.

2. Remove any unnecessary clutter

Go through the items that were on your desk and evaluate their purpose. Unless the items serve a purpose, remove them from your workplace by storing them somewhere or simply throwing them out.

Items like pens, pencils, and notepads tend to be useful but ask yourself whether you really need more than 5 pens on your desk and whether or not you could store a few away. Other items like hole punches, staplers or calculators may not be used consistently so could be stored away. However, if one of those items is valuable then make sure it’s in the appropriate place.

3. Have a bin within reach

Having a bin within reach is a brilliant way to make sure that any clutter that collects on your desk can be quickly removed. It can also help when you’re trying to sort out any papers you may have lying on your desk. You might not realise how little you need certain papers and sometimes it’s worthwhile removing them altogether. If this isn’t an option then consider tip number 4.

4. Tidy your cables We’ve all been there: a jungle of cables under and on top of the desk, not knowing which leads where and afraid to touch any of them incase they turn something off or break something. Well, now it’s time to end this. Now that you’ve removed everything from your desk you can go and start organising your cables. One of the easiest ways is to invest in cable ties which are a great, cheap way of keeping your cables neat. While the classic plastic cables ties are great I personally prefer and use velcro cable ties which are just as cheap but have the added bonus of being reusable. You could also invest in an on desk cable organiser, which can help to organise the cables you have on top of your desk. A product that I personally use and can thoroughly recommend is the Ikea Signum Cable Tray. It attaches under the desk and keeps all your cables from touching the floor.

5. Clean your desktop

Surprisingly, a messy desktop can have a similar effect to a messy desk in that it can drastically decrease productivity. In order to prevent this, it’s important to clean your desktop so that it’s much easier to navigate through this. One easy way of doing so is by deleting apps that were either pre-installed on your computer or that you downloaded long ago and don’t use any more. Either way, these apps, and programs take up valuable storage. In order to remove these apps head on over to the Control Panel then click Programs and finally Programs and Features. You’ll be greeted with a page that looks something like this:

All you have to do is simply click on the programs you wish to delete and press uninstall.

Another great way to organise your desktop is to put things into folders, especially if you use documents or photos a lot. There are a number of great ways to organise your files so just do a little research and find out which is best for you.

6. Invest in a plant

This may sound like the silliest point I could suggest when it comes to organising a desk but having desk plants have proven psychological benefits to increase productivity. A study by the University of Exeter found that having a ‘green’ office with plants can increase overall productivity by up to 15%. Plants can be a great way to boost your mood and your productivity while adding a little aesthetic touch to your desk’s appearance. You can get a number of plants at a very small cost like this one.

7. Segment your desk

Even if you use your desk primarily for your computer it’s still worthwhile segmenting your desk into different parts. On my desk, the left hand side is where I keep my notepads, the right for my pens and pencils and my plants and monitor goes in the middle.

You should always try and have a dedicated area for your papers even if your desk is used for computers. That way you can still check papers and write without having to cram by the keyboard or mouse.

8. Clean before you leave

This is a simple one but something that’s vital for maintaining a clean desk. After all, it’s all well and good cleaning your desk, but if the clutter is going to reappear within a week then all your hard work would’ve been worth nothing. Every day before you leave your desk, put your pens and pencils away, organise your papers and notepads and throw out any rubbish so that when you come back next time you’ve got a clutter-free, clean slate to work on.



Another good idea would be to do a weekly ‘deep clean’ where you go through everything and re-prioritise what it is you need.

9. Go digital With the majority of people now owning a smartphone and computer, it’s often much easier to go digital and paperless for a number of reasons. Not only can going digital increase productivity by reducing the amount of clutter through papers on your desk but it also massively increases how productive you can be through cloud sharing and backing up. By going digital you can also increase the security of your papers by scanning them into digital format and saving them in multiple locations both on hard drives and in the cloud. There are a number of apps that can help you to scan in your documents to a digital format. My personal favourite is Microsoft OneNote. It’s one of the best digital note-taking apps on the market and it allows you to share your notes over multiple devices.

10. Use organising trays

Organising trays are a great way to store loose papers and documents without them being left to pile up on the desk. You can label each tray to make sure that you know exactly which item goes where and what it is you’re storing.

Conclusion

As I’ve said, an organised desk is vital for a productive day and even if you do a few of the things I’ve said you might find yourself feeling more productive by the day. Even by taking a few tips and slowly organising your desk you’re taking steps towards a more organised workspace and a more productive day.