http://www.lostincubes.com Workplace Politics . Personal Productivity . Effectiveness . Survival . Negotiation Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:15:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 en hourly 1 http://www.lostincubes.com/7-tips-to-keep-your-desk-tidy/ http://www.lostincubes.com/7-tips-to-keep-your-desk-tidy/#comments Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:04:03 +0000 admin http://www.lostincubes.com/?p=483 Studies have shown that messy desk decreases your productivity. (That means messy people with messy desk too)  You do not have space to work with.  You are enclosed into a small space.  Emotionally and psychologically you feel overwhelmed.  You feel disturbed and troubled if you want to spend time clearing up the mess in order to get things moving.  Well, you should!  Follow our listed tips and you will improve your personal productivity!

1. Devise a system to manage paper – The first thing that can make your desk messy is paper.  We make tons of printouts and leave them on our desk.  Devise a way to manage the paper on your desk.  Such as filing.  Placing in a to-do and done corner.  The more paper you have, the more likely you get yourself into a messy situation in handling them.
2. Get rid of Post-it notes – The many Post-it notes may not be signs of productivity.  Yes, some of us may be productive with Post-it notes, but not all of us.  Furthermore, the Post-it notes will only create messy and unsightly flaps of papers.
3. Trash those printouts – Trash those useless printouts if there is no use of them anymore.  Of course, they can be used as recycle paper.  Keep them in one corner if they are serving that purpose.  Keeping redundant printouts only waste space on the desk.  If possible, don’t even print out as they are not environmental friendly too!
4. Keep away unused stationaries – We usually leave our stationaries lying around on the desk.  Your pens, erasers, pencils, staple, etc are just little ingredients to a messy desk.  Keep them neat and tidy when you are not using them.
5. Keep your books – Keep the books in the shelves if you are not using them.  What’s the point of leaving them on the desk where it serves no purpose except as ornaments?  Take a stock take of your books.  They may be out-dated and not relevant anymore.  Whenever possible, dump those out-dated books!
6. Eat away from your desk – Go out to have your meal.  Not at your work desk.  There will be tendency that you will mess up your work desk with the food you’ve had for lunch!  You do not want to see the food debris of the hamburger you took for lunch, right?  Reward yourself with a lunch outside!
7. Limit photo frames on the desk – Your family photos will only distract you.  You will have the tendency to make a phone call home to check if everything is fine.  If you want to make an appointment for dinner, etc.  Keep the photo frames minimal.  Make them serve their purpose of giving you encouragement at work.  You be rewarded with a focus mind and a lesser time needed to wipe the dust off the photo frames!

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