We’ve all been there. Rushing to meet deadlines throughout the day, every day, and never finding the time to tidy up our desks. Day in, day out, we go to our offices, always printing out new documents and bits of paper, or being handed notes and never creating any order to our paperwork. Then, when we need to find that important piece for this particular piece of work, we frantically pull pieces of paper under from one another, knowing that we’ve seen the bit that we need but not entirely sure where it was.

Having a messy desk at work could have an adverse effect on your productivity, however. If your office is strewn with papers and office supplies, chances are you won’t be getting employee of the month, a bonus or any kind of recognition anytime soon. A report in 2011 by OfficeMax found that employees who had messy desks were less productive, and this was often down to a lack of motivation caused by being surrounding by clutter.

On the contrary, employees with tidy desks were more productive, and this was often helped by the fact that they could easily find paperwork and information that they needed to work to their maximum capacity.

How To Be More Organised and Tidy At Work

If you are finding that your desk is constantly a mess, there are things you can do to reduce clutter and get yourself more organised. This will help to clear your mind, improve your productivity and can even help to get you that promotion!

First of all, set daily and weekly desk tidying slots in your diary. All you need is 5 minutes before your lunch and 10 minutes at the end of every day to organise your desk and tidy things away. Then, you can also set a 20-minute slot once a week to give your desk a more thorough tidy and clear away any clutter that hasn’t been used. Shred old paperwork, keep current paperwork in trays, folders or piles (SMALL PILES!), and tidy your stationary and gadgets into designated places.

Secondly, don’t fool yourself into thinking that by creating large piles of paper that you are tidy. You need to regularly sort through papers to either deal with them, or throw them away if they are no longer in use. Those documents that are used regularly, such as charts or reference documents can be stored neatly in folders with tags to help you find them when you need them.

Make sure that you keep limits to the amount of paperwork on your desk at once. In this day and age you can scan any paperwork into your computer that you don’t need immediately, and any paperwork that becomes old but you’re not sure that you might need again in future, do the same –p scan it in and save it just in case, but whatever you do don’t keep piling up the paper.

This article originally appeared in: http://www.theofficesuppliessupermarket.com/articles/Is-Your-Desk-A-Mess-If-So-Its-Affecting-Your-Productivity