How Can You Keep Your Office Desk Clean?

A clean desk gives you the feeling of inspiration while working and also energetic. When your desk is clean, you will be more focused on your work and get it done within the deadline. Your clean and organized desk is for a day or two. When you start working on another big project, it will be a chaotic and messy desk. Some people are having large desk spaces while others have small ones. 

Whenever you are staring at your giant messy desk, you feel like organizing things but it can seem impossible to do so. The clutter will divert your attention and you might end up having stress and anxiety because you are not able to complete your work meeting the deadlines. 

How Can You Keep Your Office Desk Clean?

Keeping your office desk organized and clean will help you to enjoy your physical workspace with a clearer mind and increased productivity.

Do A Purge 

Do A Purge

Your office desk is a center of focus and creativity. Keeping notes helps you with reminders but a heap can make you less productive. The clutter leads to procrastination and it gets you feeling overwhelmed and stressed. To purge, make sure that you clean your office desk at the beginning of the week. You move your everything to a new location for cleaning. Organize your stuff according to your needs and keep unnecessary things aside. 

By the end of the week, if there are things that untouched during the whole week, it means that you can remove them from your desk. It will help you to have more workspace. It is about stationery, cables and other things required to get your work done. You can do it with your drawers and filing cabinet too. 

Do A Daily Wipe Down 

Do A Daily Wipe Down

By the end of the day, make sure that you take time to wipe down your desk before you go home. Wiping down the desk means that you will be putting things away from your desk if they are unnecessary such as paper cuttings, scissors, paper cutters, note pads, etc. 

Wiping down your desk by the end of the day means that you will be coming to a clean desk the next morning for a fresh start. By doing so, you will be productive and creative every day. 

Work on One Thing at A Time 

Work on One Thing at A Time

If you think that you are aces at multitasking, then keep it in your mind that you will be creating more mess on your office desk. The fact is that multitasking is cognitively impossible. When you work on more than one task at a time, you will be failing and trying again to make it complete. It will make a clutter on your office desk.

To minimize the clutter on your office desk, try to work on one task at a time because it will occupy less space on your office desk. When you are done with one task, you can clean up your desk and start working on another one. 

Get Rid of Documents 

Get Rid of Documents

There can be a pile of documents that clutter your office desk. Instead of keeping documents and files on your desk, you can make soft copies of them. Go digital. If you don’t need a physical or hard copy of a document, you can scan it and save it on your laptop or PC. You can easily save the files as PDFs with names and categories. Later, it will help you to find the files easily. 

Having a directory on a laptop or PC saves your workspace in the office and it is better than using a file cabinet near your office desk. After scanning, you can compile the files and put them in the storeroom so that you can access them later if needed.

Toss Pens and Pencils You Don’t Use 

Toss Pens and Pencils You Don’t Use

Pen and pencils are not a part of your effort, but keeping dried-up ballpoints will make a mess on your office desk. Instead of keeping a bunch of useless pencils and dried-up ballpoints, you can pare down them to two pens and pencils. It will keep a minimum of clutter on your office desk

Also, keeping a limited collection of pens and pencils will not be lent to your coworkers who never give them back to you. 

Put Office Supplies Away 

Put Office Supplies Away

Using a desk caddy to hold your office supplies is a good way to minimize desk clutter. You can put it away if still it is creating visual clutter. Instead of putting it on the desk, you can put it away in the drawer to keep the rarely used supplies away from the office desk. To keep the office supplies organized, try using a utensil tray. 

Use A Trash Can

Use A Trash Can

Putting a trash can next to or under your desk is important. As soon as something that you don’t need anymore on the desk, you can toss it. If the clutter piles up, you will get used to it. Try to get recycling can so that you can discard the documents that you don’t need anymore.

You don’t want your trash can to be overflowing with paper and documents. It gives a messy look around your office desk. 

Keep Electronics Hidden Away 

Keep Electronics Hidden Away

Keeping a modem and router settings on your desk takes up a place on your workspace. They will blink all the time. You can put them on the floor or mount them on the wall. It will help you to have distractions at work. USB connectors can be placed aside instead of on the desk of your office. 

Create Desk Work Zones 

Create Desk Work Zones

Your desk, chair, and storage make up your office work zone. It can be in your office and your home too. When you are creating an organized workspace at your home or in the office that would be functional to get your work done, make sure that you are considering the entire ecosystem that gives you a holistic refresh. 

When you are building work zones on your desk, ensure that the items are close to each other and they are in an arm’s reach. Some things can be far away depending on the importance and usage of those items. For example, if you are work zone or space involves physical items such as files and contracts, then you can keep them on one side of your desk. When you work on each file, move it to the center. Once the work is done, move them back to their designated zone. 

Staying at one place during the whole day makes you lazy. Moving from place to place while working improves your focus and blood flow. Adding a movement will remind you of changing positions after every 30 minutes. 

Manage Your Cable Clutter 

Manage Your Cable Clutter

Apart from sticky notes, note pads, pencils, pens, etc., there is a clutter of cables on your desk too. If you are having poor management of cables then it can create visual noise. Hence, you will be slow and procrastinating on your workday. Organizing the cables at your office desk will freshen your workspace. 

Unplug wires from the devices and sort them out. Examine the current setup at your office desk. You may see a lot of cables that are not even in your use for a long time. You can mark them and keep them in your drawer. It will help you to find them easily when you need to troubleshoot problems. You can use a marker or painter’s tape to mark them and sort them. 

Before reattaching the cables, position the furniture in the furthest position. There will be more room in your workspace for sitting and standing and moving. Using a cable tray will organize the cluttered cables of your laptop, PC, smartphones, etc. It keeps the cables tied together in one place. 

Office Desk – Ways to Minimize Clutter

Instead of placing everything on your office desk while working, you can organize and segment your desk. There are different techniques to keep the clutter away from your office desk. Instead of multitasking, try to work on one thing at a time. Do weekly deep cleaning and sort out the paperwork on daily basis. Keeping your office desk clean will make you more productive, energetic, and devoted to important tasks.