It wouldn’t be wrong if we say that our office desk is our second home. It is, in fact, the only space where we spend almost the same amount of time that we do in our homes, if not more.

And for some reason, it’s also the messiest space in our lives. The wire clusters, sticky notes, writing pads, piles of papers, thumbtacks, pens, highlighters and whatnot. The thing is that we believe this mess makes us look busy while conveniently keeping everything in our easy reach. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

So, to keep the numbers from falling, it’s important that you invest some time, and money to declutter your office from wires and urge your employees to organize their desks. And here are a few tips to get you started.

Organizing Office Wires

Use Zip Ties

Zip ties offer a great way of clearing up any dangling wires or cables under your desk or on your office floor. They are also very simple to use. You just need to untangle the wires, bunch them up neatly and tie them up with a zip tie. The thing about zip ties is that they are quite strong and can hold their place for years, leaving you worry-free from ever seeing the old mess of wires or cables again.

Zip ties are also somewhat permanent. Meaning, if you ever decide to make a change around the office, you will need to cut the zip ties to free the wires and use new ones in their place.

Use Velcro Strips

Velcro strips can be used in a similar way to tie up and tuck away unwanted wires and cables. However, unlike zip ties, velcro straps are easy to undo if you ever decide to change things up. They are also not as easy to handle or as strong as zip ties.

Cable Labels

Once you have neatly untangled and tied up all the cables and wires, you need to label them. This will keep things simplified and you will not have to trace back the wires every time there’s a problem.

There are many ways you can label your cables including some DIY methods. However, we suggest you either buy proper cable tags or go with marker zip ties.

Organizing Office Desks

Purge Your Desk

There is no better way to start organizing your desk than doing a purge first. Go through everything on your desk and see what you need and what you don’t. For example, you need to have a pen handy on your desk but you don’t need to have one in every possible color of the spectrum. So, throwaway all the items that are just taking up space and you’ll have quite a spacious desk to begin organization.

Personal Space

Start off by creating or rather dedicating some space on your desk to personal stuff like your wallet, handbag, smartphone or any other thing that is a part of your daily carry. More often than not, these are the things that make your desk look messy.

Get a Two-Way Paper Tray

If your office still relies on paper work, it’s no wonder your office desk is messy. Paper clusters can make even the most organized desks looks messy. So, get yourself a two-way paper tray system and organize all your papers in two piles. Make one for those that just need to be filed and the other for those that still need your attention.

Avoid Procrastination

Procrastination is one of the biggest reasons behind disorganized desks. Procrastinators have a habit of piling up stuff that they believe can be dealt within a few minutes, on their desks. If you are such a person, work on developing a habit of taking care of tasks immediately. This not only greatly reduce your workload but will keep your desk looking neat.

Digitize Yourself

Avoid the use of paper and pen as much as possible. Whether you excessively take notes and memos, or use a desk calendar to track your projects, you will find an app for everything nowadays. Try to digitize yourself by incorporating these apps in your work. If you’re not comfortable using them on your phone, you’ll find a variant for most of these apps on your computer as well.

Get a Waste Basket

If your desk already doesn’t have one, place a waste basket under it on priority basis. This will be a huge step toward not letting things pile up on your desk. Immediately toss away things that you don’t need or are irrelevant. A waste basket will also save you the time you waste waiting for your turn to use the paper shredder.

Hide Away The Computer Cables

Whether you use a desktop computer or a laptop for work, chances are its cables are also spread all across your workstation and often hinder your work. Freely use zip ties or velcro strips to organize them. Also neatly tie away your phone’s charging cable or better yet, get a power bank that you can place in your personal space on the desk when charging your phone.

Divide Your Desk into Sections

You don’t need to nail wood to create sections. Create imaginary sections for everything on your desk so you can neatly put everything in its place. This will keep your desk always looking well-organized and even make certain things easy to find even in your absence.

The Weekly Cleaning Ritual

Develop a habit of clearing you desk of unwanted stuff and deep clean it. Friday is perfect for this task. As the last workday of the week arrives the chances would likely be that you would have gathered some unwanted stuff on your desk. Go through everything before you leave the office and remove or throwaway anything that you won’t need on Monday. And since you would’ve already organized your desk, going throw the contents atop your desk won’t even take too much of your time.

Conclusion

If you follow these tips to the tee you will not only have a neat and clean desk but will also witness spike in the levels of your productivity. If your employees also keep their desks looking untidy and disorderly, you can conduct a small workshop to share all these tips with them and make your office look more organized and even witness a boost in its productivity.

While you can argue that many gadgets can also improve your business’s productivity, you will be right. Nonetheless, such gadgets cannot help your business build a brand image in a way an organized office can as it leaves a good first impression on your clients.