Cleaning My Desk Increased My Productivity

 

Early last year, I had finally had enough. I was sick of the clutter sitting around everywhere because things didn’t have a home or I hadn’t established good systems for shuffling papers. I purged my closet and our entire house room by room. Getting rid of things, minimizing, and establishing a home for things was life-changing. It gave me room to breathe and allowed me to enjoy what we do have more because there was space to enjoy it. But it took me a while to translate that into my workplace. 

 

My day to day desk job is working as the secretary, administrative assistant, do everything paperwork for my husband and his business partner in our Ag retail business. We built the office in 2012 and honestly, didn’t really put much thought into our desk systems. We just picked things out and since then we’ve been using whatever it was we picked out. I have regularly felt overwhelmed during the busy seasons of our work: overwhelmed with paperwork, filing, and my desk being a disaster. You know the scene: multiple stacks of papers, sticky notes everywhere – a sort of organized chaos. For me, this really hinders my productivity – it feels so stifling to me. I always just figured this was the way at work was, that was until I decided to clean my desk.

 

Cleaning my desk not only increased my productivity. Now, I actually enjoy sitting down at my desk every day. It is relaxing. And a breath of fresh air when it isn’t piled up with papers. Cleaning my desk has encouraged me to keep up on filing as well as weekly maintain whatever may be sitting around needing to be addressed in order to keep it in good, clean working order. It has been so refreshing and completely changed my work environment. I always thought I thrived in organized chaos, turns out I thrive in minimalism and order.

 

I found in my exploration of my needs at my desk that I needed four very distinct areas for papers: immediately address, customer invoices need to be filed, business expenses need to be filed, and outgoing mail. For the immediately address pile, I picked up a clipboard. At the end of the day, if there is anything lingering into the next day. It goes all into a pile and gets clipped on the clipboard. This has been an excellent way to keep that pile of papers that need to be addressed neat and tidy. For the rest of papers, I picked up some Poppin bins. These help contain the piles before I get to filing them in their appropriate files in my filing cabinet. Because they are neat and tidy, it helps encourage me to file in order to keep my desk maintained way more often than when I previously just piled papers on my desktop. 

 

I also got Poppin containers to contain random items like lotions, flash drives, stamps, checks, paperclips, etc. Having a specific home for these things as well as containers to keep them neat and tidy makes all the difference visually and mentally.

 

I was that person that had sticky notes of all sorts taped on my monitor. Numbers I needed to remember, login information, phone numbers, etc. it was all there. I wasn’t sure how I was going get rid of those without putting them in a desk drawer or somewhere that made it difficult to access. A friend of mine suggested that I put all of that information (or even the sticky notes themselves) into a pretty notebook that can sit on my desk. This has been AMAZING! It works great. The information is still easily accessible and now there are NO sticky notes to be found on my desk ANYWHERE! 

If you are like me, you have a favorite type of pen but often find your pen cup is full of pens you hate. Filter those out. Keep only the pens you love using in YOUR cupholder. If you have customers coming in, put those other pens in that cupholder. Same goes for notepads, mousepads, file folders, whatever else. If it doesn’t bring you joy – it doesn’t have to sit or even take space on your desk. I realized that I don’t love colorful sticky notes, I found out they make straight white ones. It may cost a little extra, but in the end, having something that brings you joy every single day is worth the few extra pennies.

 

Take an assessment of your desk. What is it that stresses you out? What piles up that you have trouble dealing with? For me, my desk often becomes the mail drop zone for incoming or outgoing mail. A friend of mine suggested creating a specific space for this mail and investing in something to contain the mess that stresses you out. I gave the mail that would be dropped all over my desk a specific home (and bin) and I also made a cognizant note in my head to deal with mail sooner rather than later instead of letting it build up on my desk. I have also trained in the various people who utilize my desk for mail about where the outgoing mail goes. Now there are no questions – you just know that outgoing mail goes here. 

 

I am currently working on fully adapting to this. I keep a lot of handwritten paper notes – for reference purposes and many other purposes. But rather than keeping it on paper, I can absolutely keep it digitally. I am slowly but surely working on keeping pertinent, important information digitally versus a hard paper copy (unless necessary) to eliminate the need to keep all of that stuff. If I absolutely need a hard copy at any time, I can always print it! 

Once your desk is decluttered and you’ve found a great workflow for managing your desk day to day, add in some elements that you love. This can include things like a lamp you love, adding life with faux greenery or flowers, family photos or photos of the ones you love, unique artwork that makes you happy, etc. It is amazing what a little personalization and adding life to your workspace can do for your mental health. Adding some faux greenery to my desk made ALL THE DIFFERENCE as well as having warm, ambient light especially on cloudy days. I even went as far as to include some faux led candles on my desk because I love the warm glow, especially during the long winter. I have photos of the people I love, artwork that I love, and also continued my antique camera collection I have at home in to work. It brings me so much joy to be surrounded by all the things I love – even if the men I work with think I’m crazy. 

Often decor designated specifically for offices can be sterile or just blah. I recommended finding items designed for home use. For example, I am utilizing a tray as a catch-all on my desk versus a designated “office storage bin”. It is much prettier, has more texture, and still does the same job. The lamp that sits on my desk isn’t a task lamp at all, it is a table accent lamp but still provides the light I enjoy and need. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box and utilize things within your workspace that may not be traditional. If you love it, find a way to utilize it in your space.