Is your desk a mess? Can you easily find what you need? Can you actually see your desk?
A cluttered desk can have an impact on your creativity and your ability to crack on with your work. On the flipside, creating an environment that supports focus and minimises distractions will lead to a more focused workforce and increased productivity. Here are our tips for minimising clutter at work:
Have a clean desk policy
Easy to say, far harder to put in action. But if you diarise to regularly sweep away the clutter from your desk at the end of each month it can be a useful way of getting rid of the junk. If you find it hard, ask a colleague to help you be ruthless – it’s much easier to get rid of someone else’s rubbish than your own.
Provide plenty of recycling and wastepaper bins
Make it easy for staff to recycle by having office recycling bins not just for wastepaper but also for ink cartridges. At The Penketh Group we provide cardboard toner collection bins for empty cartridges which we collect and recycle to raise funds for charity. If you are interested in this service, please email enquiries@penkethgroup.com
Streamline your desks
When desks need replacing, consider a more modern and functional range of office furniture. By their very nature, bench desks – ideal for call centres and hot desking – are designed to encourage clutter-free work surfaces.
Lift up your screen
Computer screens and stands really clutter up a desk. Move yours up and out of the way with a sturdy monitor arm. Fully adjustable with a smooth gas action, these clever arms are easy to install and can be altered to suit the individual user with the minimum of effort. They can also help maintain a person’s correct posture and improve wellbeing.
Give staff a desk toolbox
Only office essentials such as a few pens, pencils, rulers, staplers and paperclips are allowed in this. Great as a daily desk tidy, a desk toolbox is fun, practical and can also be moved to a locker at the end of the day.
Block unwanted senders
Be ruthless with your inbox – it can often feel like we are battered with junk email which distract the eyes when you are concentrating on your work. Regularly add unwanted emails to your junk file, unsubscribe from marketing lists and delete unnecessary subscriptions.
Have a designated eating area
A whopping 80 per cent of infectious diseases can be transmitted by touch so tucking into a bag of crisps and a cheese & onion sandwich while you tap away on your keyboard is not the healthiest of ways to spend your lunchbreak. Even if you only have ten minutes to grab a snack, get up, walk away and eat it away from the desk. A work café, canteen or dedicated eating area is ideal. As well as reducing potential health hazards, minimising spillages onto IT equipment and encouraging physical movement, it prevents the workplace from being cluttered with food stuffs.
Give staff their own locker space
Brightly coloured lockers are a great way of clearing clutter from the workspace. Create a wall of lockers and encourage staff to hang up coats, jumpers and umbrellas and to use it to store workbags and lunchtime shopping purchases.