Day 26: Simplify Your Workspace in 5 Steps

A cluttered desk doesn’t help you work. Piles of paper, lots of photos, knickknacks, tech gadgets, pens, staplers, tape – how many of these items do you really need to handle all day long? Chances are good that very few are needed to help you do your work. Today, we’re going to simplify and minimize the number of distractions in your work area, so you can think more clearly, find what you need when you need it, and generally feel more calm and collected. Here are five steps to simplifying your workspace.

1. Gather up your papers, pile them up, then deal with them. On Days 23 and 24, we talked about paper piles and filing systems. If you still have papers piled up on your desk or stuffed into “deal with me” files, take some time to sort them, purge them and file what’s left.
2. Declutter your knickknacks and desktop office supplies. If you have a lot of “stuff” on your desk, try a little experiment and box up everything except your favorite photo. Get rid of the stuffed animals, funny signs, candy bowls and desktop toys, and put the pens, stapler, paper clips and other office supplies in a drawer or nice box you can leave on the desk. I don’t have drawers in my desk, so my trinkets and supplies are organized in cubbies against the wall so that my desktop itself can stay clear. Try working with a sparse desktop for a few weeks – I bet you’ll love it.
3. If you have drawers on your desk, go through each drawer and get rid of unused items. Keep only the supplies and gadgets you actually use. Organize each drawer according to its “purpose” and make sure each item has a home. Get in the habit of putting things away when you’re finished with them instead of leaving them out on your desk all day.
4. Try decluttering your computer’s desktop as well, removing all the unused icons and filing documents into folders within the My Documents folder, instead of leaving everything out on the desktop. I keep my most-used programs in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, and all my files are organized in folders either in My Documents or my Dropbox.
5. Make some time to sort through your filing system and purge old documents that are no longer needed. This will make space for you to keep up with current filing and make it easier for you to find documents when you need them.

This post is part of the Fresh Start Series, 31 days of tips and tricks to simplify in the new year.