I haven’t posted anything from Lifehacker in awhile – so here goes. This is something that I just battled a little bit yesterday as I finally got around to cleaning the dust and surfaces that are around my desk here at work but I do realize I have a lot of clutter and stuff I haven’t used in a long time (what is the toaster and stainless steel drum doing in my filing cabinet??)
The article touches on how once you’ve cleaned your desk, it’s a lot easier to keep clean since you find yourself with the same attitude as a newly washed car. That is, “I just cleaned it, I’m not going to drive down some muddy trail or through puddles” – so with that in mind, once you’ve cleaned your desk – you’re most apt not to riddle it with more junk. Makes sense.
Here a link to the article but more importantly productivity501.com give you 5 Questions to Help Organize Your Desk which will also come in handy.
Directly from the post:
Keeping your desk organized will probably always require effort. Some people keep an organized desk naturally. Others don’t. However, there are significant benefits for everyone who works toward keeping their workspace organized–whether it comes easily, or not. The five questions above will help you better identify the sources of your disorganization and will lessen the amount of effort it takes to keep the benefits of an organized desk.
- Do you have reading materials on your desk?
- Does your desk contain items that need to be filed?
- Are there papers on your desk that require action?
- Are there things on your desk that don’t belong there?
- Do you have enough storage space?
All of those questions are addressed with tips and ideas on how to address them at the article (click here to read it). I am going to be going through and re-organizing two rooms upstairs in the coming weeks – so it was actually a good idea to re-read these tips.