Whether it’s at work or at home, there’s few surfaces that seem to get covered in clutter more than the modern day workstation. Given how much time we spend at our computer desks, it’s pretty easy for them to get covered in errant cables, half-finished notebooks, and more. And with all the attention being paid to employee comfort at their desks, keeping an organized desk is an overlooked step that can do much for your productivity. Here’s a few steps to get you started:

A Place For Everything

The best place to start would be to determine what the items you need or use the most are, and find the best place to keep them. Keep a mug or small pencil holder on your desk to keep pens and pencils together, find a small basket to store needed tools like scissors and staplers, and get some kind of organization for any documents you need to hang onto, like inbound/outbound mail.

Organize Wires and Cords

With the increasing push towards multiple monitor workstations and an ever-expanding number of gadgets on our desks, you might find yourself constantly tangled up in cables and wires that seem to cover every surface. Start by finding a good place to keep a surge protector where it can be both out of the way and not create a fire hazard. Disguise it with a cord cubby so it’s no longer an eyesore, and use devices like cable snakes and zip ties to keep everything neat, tidy, and most importantly – safe.

Downsize Where You Can

Depending on the size of your desk, one of the biggest problems could simply be a lack of space. Different types of computer desks have slide-out keyboard drawers, for example, to free up precious desk space that’s often taken up by bulky keyboards and computer accessories. Switching to headphones from speakers can open up some extra room around your monitors, and buying a monitor riser can hold your monitors up to free additional space. If you don’t have anywhere to keep your bulky desktop computer, downsizing to a smaller form-factor PC such as a Chromebox or a Mac Mini might be just what you need – if you can afford to downsize.

Hopefully some of these tips helped! We’re sure once you have a cleaner desk to work with you’ll find yourself much less stressed out and much more productive.