What is one creative desk organization idea to help boost your productivity and creativity?
To help you with creative ways to best organize your desk, we asked CEOs and business leaders this question for their best ideas. From keeping a notebook at your desk to trying out a standing desk, there are several creative ideas that may help you organize your desk to create the ambiance for greater productivity and creativity.
Here are 12 creative desk organization ideas:
- Keep a Notebook at Your Desk
- Cover An Adjacent Wall With Pegboard Or Magnetic Board
- Use Inspirational Mugs
- Buy Desk Organizers
- Clear The Clutter
- Use Blue Light Around You
- Pick the Best Chair
- Get a Tomato Timer
- Use a Vertical Monitor
- Create a Vision Board
- Keep Your Cables Organized
- Try Out a Standing Desk
Keep a Notebook at Your Desk
Keeping a notebook at your desk is absolutely essential for simultaneously boosting productivity and creativity. I like my notebook as the only non-work-related item on my desk to minimize distraction. However, if a particularly great idea strikes me that isn’t related to work, I quickly record the thought and resume work. This prevents me from losing good ideas, and keeps me on task to maintain professional focus.
dan potter, CRAFTD
Cover An Adjacent Wall With Pegboard Or Magnetic Board
A creative desk organization idea is to cover the wall behind or next to your desk with a pegboard or magnetic board. With pegboard, you can customize fun storage baskets, hooks, and any other useful solutions so that your desk is free from clutter and you’re able to have the clarity needed to focus on work. With either peg or magnetic board (or both), you have the opportunity to pin your most pressing tasks and paperwork right in front of you, allowing you to zip through tasks and feel good as you take them down and get them done. Using any available wall space is incredibly important when looking to keep your workspace organized and conducive to a smooth workflow.
Stephen Light, Nolah Mattress
Use Inspirational Mugs
Since there isn’t a great deal of drawer space where we are, we needed to improvise. We adopted the idea to use mugs to organize our belongings that we’d otherwise put in a desk drawer. By having inspirational quotes on the mugs, we are inspired to be as productive as we can.
Janice Wald, Mostly Blogging
Buy Desk Organizers
You will have to find a new home for everything that did not make the cut. If your current drawer or shelf space is insufficient, you may require more. In my opinion, desk organizers and desk trays for paperwork, stationery, and other loose items should be considered for everything that stays on your desk.
Gerrid Smith, Fortis Medical Billing
Clear The Clutter
Separate the right and left. With my work volume, my desk gets quickly piled with clutter, and separating it by importance helps me keep on top of it. One trick I have learned is to keep any reading or reference material to my left for an easy glance, stacking the less important documents on the bottom. On the right I keep my pens, a notebook and any material I need to be working on, so I have easy access when switching between my computer desktop and paper. Keeping a clean separation of work helps reduce clutter and as a result boosts productivity.
Brett Estep, Insured Nomads
Use Blue Light Around You
One creative way to decorate your desk to boost productivity is using blue light around you. Not many of us know that but blue light calms the mind and increases concentration. In fact, Japan has noticed a decline in suicide cases after its train stations are lit with blue light. Perhaps, it helps keep negativity at bay. So, make sure you have a blue light or blue light bulb on your desk. It helps in enhancing the well-being sense and declines the production of melatonin, which will make you feel drowsy.
Caroline Lee, CocoSign
Pick The Best Chair
Once you’ve decided on a desk for your office, you’ll need a chair to match. In my experience, an ergonomic chair with adjustable height features is the best for maximum productivity at work. You should be able to sit at your desk in the ideal sitting position for good posture thanks to the desk and chair combination. You may experience discomfort as well as neck and back pain if you do not have this.
Jay Bats, ContentBASE
Get a Tomato Timer
If you haven’t tried the Pomodoro method yet, consider buying an inexpensive tomato timer on Amazon. These neat little devices add a bit of color to your desk and give a non-digital symbol of how long you’ve been working on a given task. Watching the minutes tick down as you type away reminds you that you’re making steady progress on your work. It’s something to pick up and reset as you move on to a new task, getting your hands off the keyboard and your mind on your work.
David Patterson-Cole, Moonchaser
Use a Vertical Monitor
Most modern monitors on the market can actually be used vertically. Rotating your monitor might make it easier for you to read documents, articles, or ebooks. It puts less strain on your eyes and you don’t have to scroll as much. Plus, if you’re designing content that needs to follow a vertical framework, a vertical monitor might be just what you need to boost your creativity. Vertical monitors are ideal for those working in fields like content generation, photography, and programming.
Eric Ang, One Search Pro
Create a Vision Board
One creative desk organization idea is to create a vision board. A vision board is a visual representation of your goals and dreams. It can be a collage of images, words, or both. The point of a vision board is to help you focus on your goals and stay motivated to achieve them. To create a vision board, start by finding pictures that represent your goals. You can use magazines, newspapers, or the internet. Once you have your pictures, glue them onto a piece of poster board or cardboard. Then, add any words or quotes that inspire you. Hang your vision board in a place where you will see it every day to help you stay motivated and focused on your goals.
Farhan Advani, BHPH
Keep Your Cables Organized
I believe that keeping the workspace as neat and uncluttered as possible is an important part of work desk organization. A cluttered desk and office, in my opinion, are a sure way to reduce your mental clarity and overall productivity at work. The average office desk has a tangled mess of cords and cables hanging down. Consider adding a simple cable tray to your SmartDesk to keep your cords organized and out of the way.
Tanner Arnold, Revelation Machinery
Try Out a Standing Desk
I prefer to use a standing desk for the best performance and workflows. Although standing desks have become a recent trend, I use them for their health benefits and better blood flow. I have always been someone who needs to pace or move to think right. When I’m on the phone, presenting in a meeting, or coming up with new ideas, standing and moving around make the difference in how much I get done. You can adjust most standing desks to your unique work and needs, which makes them flexible assets for many different industries.
Humans are not meant to stay sitting for long periods. We condition ourselves to be able to do many things that otherwise wouldn’t feel so natural–for me, I am learning to abandon these habits by setting up my workspace so that I get the best productivity for me.
Shawn Munoz, Pure Relief
Terkel creates community-driven content featuring expert insights. Sign up at terkel.io to answer questions and get published.
