Tips to Keep Your Office Desk Tidy

If you’re busy throughout the working day and constantly submerged at your desk with the amount of work you have to do, cleaning your desk or making sure its tidy is not going to be top of your list for things to do that day, but what I have found is that following these few tips you can ensure that your desk is organised and always clean for the next morning.

Here are some tips you should look at doing:

Don’t use post-it notes

The reason this is first on the list is due to the fact that my desk was constantly untidy due to the amount of post-it notes. I admit post-it notes are great if you need to remember something as you are always aware of them, but I must stress that you should only use them if you absolutely have to. Instead why not try using reminders on your computer for instance; I couldn’t live without my Microsoft Outlook calendar.

Throw away unwanted printouts

If you have ever printed out documents for a meeting (or have been given them from someone else), decide whether you really need to keep them once the meeting has ended and if you’re going to use them again. If you don’t need them, bin them!

Tidy you’re desk at the end of the day

If you’re hectic throughout the day, tidying your desk isn’t going to be a priority but before you leave the office just take 5 minutes to clean and tidy your desk. That way you will be ready to start work off an organised desk the day after.

Don’t pile up books and magazines (Only keep the ones you need)

If you subscribe to business or marketing magazines you’ll know that every month or so you will receive a new one, but once you have finished reading the old ones either take them home (if you keep them at work), throw them in the bin but remember to note the important parts that you have read or file them away.

Keep photos at the side of your desk, but don’t have too many

It’s surprising how much room 2 or 3 framed photos can take up especially if you only have a small desk. Be sure to keep them at the side of the desk (or besides the phone) just so they are out of the way and you won’t be in danger of knocking them over.

Use small containers to keep staples, paper clips etc…

All the little accessories such as paper clips, staples and elastic bands will fit nicely in small container pots or the other option is to get ‘desk tidies pot holders’ which can also hold pens and pencils etc…

Use a paper tray

If you’re going to keep some of your printouts, you’ll need a way to organise them.  What I would suggest is to get a 3 tier paper tray and note each tier with the following:

Tier 1 = Important

Tier 2 = Needs to be filed

Tier 3 = Not read yet

Use Tier 1 for documents that you desperately need to keep or you intend to use again in that week. Use Tier 2 for outstanding documents that have been read but need to be filed away. A good tip is to always file your documents at the end of the day so you’re not wasting time throughout busy periods of the day.

Use Tier 3 for documents that need to be read. Make sure this tier doesn’t get cluttered and you keep on top of reading the documents.

Don’t eat at your desk; don’t leave snacks lying about for days

What I mean by this is packs of sweets that won’t be eaten in a day or so. Keep them in a side draw or take them home with you.

So there you have it, some great ways to keep your office desk tidy. Do you have any tips that can help keep your desk tidy?

Daniel Whittaker has worked for a successful internet business, TonerGiant Ltd., who supply quality laser printers throughout the UK, since December 2009. During this time he has develped a keen interest in programming and developing websites.

 

Post It: A Case Of Sticking With It

If you ever thought that something you created wasn’t all that good, or might not be much use it is worth considering the plight of the humble, yet mighty Post-It note. It didn’t have the most auspicious of starts in life but when it comes to dominating the world of stationary there is very little that comes close.

The glue that makes the Post-It possible was actually an absolute failure. The man behind this disaster was Spencer Silver, a scientist at 3M, who was charged with the task of producing a strong adhesive. This was about 1970. His concoction however was actually really weak and as such was canned; however, the research wasn’t destroyed.

Scoot forward a few years and a fellow researcher at 3M called Art Fry was struggling with keeping his place in his song book while singing for a choir. His bookmarks kept slipping out and causing him a right kerfuffle. It was then that he remembered the weak glue created by his colleague Spencer. He tested out the idea by coating some of his markers in the adhesive and bingo, it worked! They stayed in place and could be removed easily without damaging the paper, genius!

3M saw the potential and set to work, however the company wasn’t entirely confident in the commercial aspect of the product and this was confirmed in 1977, when tested under the name Press ‘n’ Peel results were less than encouraging. However they stuck with it and dished out a huge amount of free samples in Boise, Idaho. This was the turn around. Of the companies given free samples over 90% reordered. 3M knew they were on to something.

Post-It Notes were launched in 1980 and 3M has never looked back, and neither has the Post-It…

On the website there are examples of amazing feats achieved by Post-Its, and the little sticky note has achieved some remarkable things.

• One Post-It managed to stay stuck to the nose of an aeroplane from Las Vegas to Minneapolis. The note would have been subjected to speeds of over 500 miles an hour and temperatures as low as -50 degrees Fahrenheit.
• In 1989 a family left a note scribbled on a Post-It to their front door. It stayed there three days which doesn’t seem overly impressive, except that during those three days the front door and Post-It endured hurricane Hugo.
• A line of evening wear was created by designer Lize Vitolina entirely from Post-Its.

And that’s just scratching the surface; we’ve not even mention the Post-It in art or pop culture! One thing is clear though it’s not going away any time soon and why should it?! It’s super useful. The Post-It brand now lists a product catalogue of over 4000 items, not bad for a bit of paper with some glue on one edge…

Danny Rose uses a lot of Post-It Notes, both to inform and annoy colleagues at Find Me A Gift, the home of a wild range of novelty products.

 

What Ever Happened to the Paperless Office?

Back in 1975 an article in Business Week entitled “The Office of the Future.” proclaimed that we would have the paperless office by now – what happened? I see people’s desks and there seems to be as much paper as there always was – post it note, reports, phone messages, notepads. With a PC sitting on every desktop, it would seem that we wouldn’t need as much paper.

One theory

One theory is that we’ve just made it so much easier to generate paper. For certain there are a lot more things to print, documents, spread sheets and no end to the things you can find online. When it comes to printing, it’s true that you can generate a whole lot of paper with just a click of your mouse. Not like the old days where someone had to type it out first or you had to make copies, which at least people were mindful of the expense.

Do you trust your computer?

Social scientists theorize that at least for now, people still don’t complete trust their computers. Having an important report on paper gives people that sense of security that they won’t lose it when their PC crashes. Another reason is convenience. It’s just so easy to scribble a note on a sticky, plus you can put it somewhere that you won’t forget it. With a PC, you usually have all your monitor real estate dedicated to the task at hand, so it’s easy to lose track of a note or reminder.

Is this high tech?

Even in the movies they still show high tech offices with a computer on every desk that are more than likely networked together, and yet people will converge on the front desk to get their phone messages. This is definitely one paper use that should have been eliminated from all offices over a decade ago.

Then there’s the ubiquitous post it notes. I get that they’re convenient, but is this really an efficient way to store important information? Using software to handle this is easily just as fast (assuming you can type) and light years easier to search.

Good news

The good news is, we are using less paper. Paper use has dropped since 2000 so at least on the whole, we’re using less. Based on what I see in offices however, desks are holding as much paper as they ever have.

Mark Lawson is CEO of Telexis, maker of PHONEslips an easy to use office management software solution.