Getting my desk under control

23 July 2018

Last week, my desk got out of control. I had a leather in tray that was overflowing, despite my having gone through it recently. I had a busy client week and spent what time I was at my desk dealing with urgent items. Look how bad it got. (I’m not proud of this picture.)

So yesterday I decided I needed to get serious about my desk. It took me a couple of hours, but here’s how it looked this morning:

It’s so much easier to think about getting work done when I have a clear desk!

Here’s how I went about doing it:

I cleared all paper, even the stuff I was storing in my desktop riser, off the desk into a container.
I (permanently) removed the leather paper tray.
I made sure a trash can and recycling bin were nearby.
I started going through the items in the container, tossing many papers and filing others in clear project view folders.
I organized a couple of current move projects on a clipboard for easy use on site.
I scanned a few papers and tossed them.
I used a medium Multipurpose Bin from The Container Store (which I had on hand) to contain the project files and project clipboards.

To keep my desk more clear, I placed the multipurpose bin on top of the radiator behind my desk. That way the files are handy, but not in my way. When I have a little more time, I think I’ll clean out the rolling file cart under my desk to make room for those project files.

Here’s a picture of that action bin. It makes the radiator more crowded than I’d like (next to it are notebooks I like to keep close at hand), but I think it’s going to work.

It’s so easy for me (and my clients) to let stuff clutter up a desk unnoticed until it’s out of hand. It feels really great to have taken a little time to focus on my desk. My intention this week is to put everything away before closing up shop for the evening (which was part of a wonderful evening routine I had back in the day). I think it’s going to make for a highly productive week!

Tagged with: clutter, decluttering, desk, habits