What would your dream desk look like? How do you imagine your working space?
I certainly have dreams of a beautifully organised desk. Depending on my mood the desk and surrounding surfaces might be almost empty except for a beautiful carefully chosen pen and notebook. In this version, I also exercise daily, leap out of bed at sunrise and make my own kombucha.
Then there’s the other version. Here quirky stationery covers my desk. And I actually use it. Each pile of brightly coloured papers had a different style of paperclip holding them together. The pineapple-shaped pen pot contains pens in various hues. I use all of them and they don’t leak or dry out. The walls feature quirky framed prints. I smile as I look at the beautifully organised pinboard which has my goals, some motivational quotes and postcards from friends. Nothing is faded, torn or out of date. There is a small shelving unit holding adorable items such as novelty erasers and washi tape dispensers. They never get dusty.
In fact, the truth is somewhere in the middle. I clear off the pinboard once a year but don’t keep up with goal setting as well as I could. There is a clear-out of my pen pot from time to time. But I’m more likely to search through my overflowing pencil case. I’m continually trying to gather up the scraps of paper and card I’ve made notes on. Piles of paper build up until I have to schedule a time to deal with them. I do have a magnet with paper clips on it but this is always a surprise!
My desk has become a storage space. Aside from periodic clear ups. What can I do?
Ideas for moving towards a more beautiful (and usable) desk
- Clear the desk space at the end of every day
- If documents haven’t been dealt with add a specific action around them to my job list and then file them
- Either use my pencil case or a pen pot. Clear out whatever I choose regularly – think the 20:80 rule
- Develop a love for dusting, accept dust or don’t have stuff on display (see first bullet point)
- Log what items I actually use over the course of a few days.
Any thoughts? How do you keep your workspace looking inspirational?
P.s. Keeping my pencil case under control is an ongoing thing! See my post about a minimal pencil case