How to organise your desk for a clear mind

Knowing how to organise your desk properly is about more than just adjusting your belongings so that they’re straight and sitting pretty. Having a well-organised desk helps keep your mind clear and can even help you be a more efficient worker. But with our desk organisation ideas, keeping yours tidy needn’t feel like a full-time job.

With our guide on how to organize desk spaces, you can make light work of it – so you can get back to the real work!

How to organise your desk

1. Clear the decks

Starting with a blank canvas will give you a chance to think about what’s essential and non-essential to your desk. Instead of wondering how to tidy a desk, you’ll have to carefully choose what needs to be on there.

2. Plan for the unexpected

No organised desk is complete without a box of tissues. It means you won’t have to leave your desk in the event of a spilled drink. They not only look great, but they’re practical too: tough enough to deal with a cold, yet super soft on skin.

3. Out with the old

One of our top desk organisation tips is to take this as an opportunity to get rid of anything that’s broken (yes, that includes that scratchy pen that doesn’t work anymore), unwanted, or no longer relevant to you or your work. If your desk gets cluttered easily, look at getting a convenient waste paper bin so that you can shed any unneeded papers as you go.

4. Check for cables

Make sure all of your cables are tidy and for added convenience label your plugs if you have a habit of unplugging the wrong thing by mistake. Try using a cable-stay system on your desk too – it’ll mean your desk won’t swallow up your laptop charger when you unplug it.

5. Make the most of the space

Prioritise your immediate desk space for your daily essentials, and move anything that you need less often to a drawer or cupboard elsewhere. Use the wall space for sticking up any papers you need to reference often and consider re-homing anything decorative that you don’t have space for: your bonsai tree might be a lovely addition to your desk, but it doesn’t need to be in arms reach. Desk organisation tips like these help you utilise your space to the max.

6. Keep a designated junk pot

You’re bound to accumulate a bit of junk. Rubber bands. Sturdy paperclips. That bolt you found on the floor that might be from your chair. Keep it all in one place to stop it invading your desk and drawers. Even better, make a pen pot or table organiser that not only organises your stationary, but also accommodates your bits and bobs. This is one solution to the question of how to organize a desk without drawers.

7. Order your drawers

If you do have drawers, keep items you use often in the top one for speedy access, and anything less frequently used in the lower ones. You can sort them by the type of contents, by priority, or whatever makes sense to you. But what about how to organize a desk without drawers? You can use wall shelves instead, or pop a small multi-level unit on your desk.

8. Declutter every day (or try to)

Sometimes you’re going to want to get away from your desk ASAP, but you’ll find coming back to your desk the next day a lot easier without having to sort through yesterday’s tasks. Knowing how to tidy a desk quickly is simple once you get into the habit.

Now you know how to organize desk spaces, put our desk organisation ideas into practice, and you’ll have the best start to your work each day. Having less distractions and clutter on your desk means you’ve got a clearer head and a fresh perspective to face any task.