How to Spring Clean Your Workspace for Increased Productivity

How to Spring Clean Your Workspace for Increased Productivity

The words “spring cleaning” often mean sweeping out the garage and rounding up unused items for the donation drop off.

But considering you spend the majority of waking hours at your desk, it makes sense to give your workspace some attention, too. Doing so can help you maintain a cleaner, more sanitary, less cluttered, better organized, and ultimately more productive work environment.

Here are some helpful tips to get you started.

1. Disinfect Things You Touch

The data suggesting that keyboards, phones, and pens are dirtier than toilet seats is not new news. Yet we often do little about it…even during the winter months when the normal array of germs are augmented with cold and flu contagions.

Deep cleaning tips for your keyboard, mouse, pens/pen holder, and desktop can be found at uhhospitals.org and at cnet.com. Highlights include:

• Unplug your keyboard and mouse before cleaning.
• Turn your keyboard upside down to shake out debris and crumbs.
• Use compressed air to remove the stubborn pieces.
• Use disinfectant wipes on all surfaces you touch (being careful not to let excess moisture drip into electronics or between keys).
• Use cotton swabs to clean hard to reach spaces (such as in between keys).

2. Clean Your Screen Properly

You might feel tempted to break out the window cleaner and paper towels to spruce up your monitor, smart phone, and any other digital display on your desk. Don’t.

Paper (as we all know) comes from wood, and can scratch. And glass cleaners often contain chemicals that can damage delicate coatings on monitors and device screens.

If you want a clean computer screen, follow these instructions, which include the following:

• Turn the monitor off first (even better, unplug it) then let it cool down.
• Use a lint-free microfiber cleaning cloth (if you dig out the packaging your smart phones came in, chances are you already have such a cloth…or two or three).
• Use only a screen cleaner specifically designed for TVs and monitors (or use distilled water).
• Spray the CLOTH. Never spray directly on the screen, as drips can find their way into sensitive electronics.
• GENTLY wipe the screen. For stubborn smudges, simply repeat the process until clean. Don’t apply extra force, or try to scrape off a smudge with a fingernail.
• Gently dry the screen with a dry section of microfiber cloth to remove streaks.

3. Declutter Your Desktop

When discussing desk organization ideas, some have used the analogy of a fighter pilot or the driver of a car. Specifically, when you’re driving a well-designed car, everything you need is within an arm’s reach and logically laid out.

The same sensibilities can be applied to your desk. For example, if you use your right ear when talking on the phone, place the phone on the right side of your desk so that the cord doesn’t stretch across your desktop when you talk. Keep a note pad and a single pen in a spot where you can quickly grab them using the hand you write with. Organize your paperwork so that there is a singular direction items travel as they progress from “to do” to “in process” to “outbox.” In other words, think about how you work, and arrange your desk in a manner that complements that.

If you have a larger desk, some have suggested organizing the desk by “zones.” This way, you can use one zone strictly for paperwork, and another for computer work, and ultimately keep your different tasks from competing for space.

And back to the fighter pilot. He or she doesn’t have candy wrappers, extra pens and paper clips, wires, and other clutter impeding access to vital controls and instruments. As such, any items you absolutely don’t need on a regular basis need to be stored or thrown out. Also, take some time to tame the nest of power and connector cords snaking their way across your desk.

When finished, you’ll be overcome by an amazing sense of calm.

4. Declutter Your Virtual Desktop

Take all those files scattered around your computer desktop and either organize them into folders, or trash them. Take some time to organize your email inbox, too. Depending on how lax you’ve been over the past couple of years, it may be easiest to move extremely old emails to an “Old Emails” folder. This may be better than deleting them entirely because on the off chance you need to retrieve something, the emails are still searchable. Then, moving, forward, devise a system to better stay on top of your new messages.

It’s not a fun task, but that same serene feeling you get from a desk that is free of clutter, you’ll equally enjoy in the virtual realm too.

5. Get Organized

While it’s important to keep the desktop area free of things we don’t constantly use, we generally have a list of items we often use, like paper clips, rubber bands, and push pins. In addition, we need a place to store supplies like staples, sticky notes, and extra pens. Finally, while we continue to strive for a “paperless” environment, some amount of paperwork seems inevitable.

Fortunately, a wide variety of desk organizer products are available, as are desk organization ideas. What you wind up doing will depend largely on your existing desk, available accessories, and the nature of the work you do, but here are some examples:

• Use a shallow pencil drawer for spare pens, stickies, staples, and paperclips. This can also be used as a “catch all drawer” but make a habit of regularly sorting it and throwing unneeded items away. Otherwise it will quickly turn into a junk drawer.
• Paperwork that is stacked vertically takes up much less room. Devise an organization system using hanging file folders and/or magazine file holders to manage inbound items, items that are in process, and completed items. Recycle paperwork you no longer need.
• Manage power cords and connectors through intelligent use of cable raceways, extension cords, power supplies, and desktop charging stations. For cables that tend to stay put (like monitor cables), keep them neatly tucked out of the way. For cables that correspond to items you frequently need to take with you (like phone charging cables and laptop power supplies), make connections and sources easily accessible so you can “grab and go” without fishing around under your desk or behind your monitor.
• Instead of letting books, reams of paper, printers, and other large objects take up valuable desktop space, make use of shelving for oversized items.

Standing Desk Accessories: Part of Your Spring Cleaning Action Plan
Many agree that standing desks can help enhance energy and focus, both of which are shown to increase productivity. To maximize these benefits, accessorize your standing desk with items that help reduce clutter, and add desk organizer products to help you manage workflow. For example, a desktop charging station and cable raceway can help keep cords tidy. A mouse tray with storage or pencil drawer can help clear your desktop of small items. A bookcase with wheels offers plenty of additional space while a mobile file cabinet with cushion seat provides a place to charge your phone and organize hanging files while offering a coworker a place to sit when collaborating.

We hope you found these office organization ideas, and tips on how to clean keyboard and how to clean monitor helpful! Happy Spring!