Working from home can be difficult at the best of times. There are so many distractions which can keep you from being productive. Maybe the kids are home from school and their running in and out of your room, or your wife is asking you to take a look at something on the TV. Keeping your focus is difficult in those situations, but this isn’t the article to tell you how to solve those problems.
In this post, we will look at another distraction which can keep you from being productive. But, this time we are able to get around the problem, and that problem is a cluttered desk.
Now some people may work fine in a mess, but if you’re like 99% of normal people, a cluttered desk can be an unneeded distraction.
A tidy workplace will allow you to have a clear mind and be far more creative, with that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the solutions you can implement.
Remove items that don’t belong.
I would start here before purchasing anything else as a little common sense can save you so much space. Firstly, get rid of any items that belong to other rooms of the house.
Look around for any items that should be in the kitchen, bathroom, or living room and take them there. I would also look in the draws and cupboards in your home office and do the same, even though those items are out of sight they are taking up vital storage space.
Invest in storage.
Filing cabinets are a great way to keep your documents off your desk and organised, but if you need to store confidential information and need to protect it from damage you may want to invest in some self-storage.
Pink Self Storage in Newport is a great self-storage company that I have personally used to store my business documents for the last 3 years.
Other than documents you can also store any furniture that is no longer needed in your home but you don’t want to throw out either. By putting your furniture in self storage instead of selling it you can always come back to it in a few years when you want to change the look of your home.
Digitise your documents.
Most tax forms can now be digitised along with proposals and contracts. Digitising your documents will not only save you space but also time when you need to look for them, just make sure to make backups and you should also organise them in a manner that makes sense.
Organise your desk.
If there is one tip you really should listen to in this post it is this one. You really should organise your desk as it’s the main part of the office you will be using 90% of the time.
There are multiple ways you can organise your desk, firstly I would recommend getting a desk organiser which can hold your physical files, pens and pencils. A desk organiser not only looks neater but it keeps you organised as you always know where your pens and notebooks are when you need to take notes. There’s nothing worse than being on a call with a potential client and having to run around to find a pen.
The next item you could invest in is a computer monitor organiser stand. A monitor stand is both practical and aesthetic. A monitor stand props up your monitor to a height where it is ergonomic for your seating position and it’s aesthetic in that it allows you more storage space.
If your desk has draws you could also invest in drawer organisers. If you haven’t seen them, they are great. Drawer organisers are usually plastic trays with separate compartments which stop the items within from stacking on top of each other. Drawer organisers make your desk look cleaner while making everything easier for you to find.
Do daily maintenance.
No one likes tidying up, there are a million things I would rather do than tidy my desk, but if we do it a little a day then it doesn’t add up to one huge mess that we have to tackle.
Some tips to maintain your desk on a daily basis would include binning any rubbish as soon as you see it, filing paper the moment it’s not needed and removing any cups or glasses from your desk as soon as they are empty.
You should also aim to make sure that your desk is completely clean before finishing work at the end of the day.
