If you’re like most people, your desk is probably your go-to daily workspace. Whether your desk is waiting for you in your cubicle at work or nestled in your home office, chances are good that most of your productivity happens when you’re sitting in front of it. The way you set up your desk space can make or break your daily productivity level. Just like it’s difficult to concentrate in a crowded, noisy coffee shop, it’s hard to stay focused when your desk is a cluttered mess. Having the right items in your workspace can do wonders for your productivity, while the wrong ones lead to distraction and loss of focus. Pick and choose the items you keep on your desk carefully to help yourself stay focused, alert, and productive all day long.
1. LED Light
Working under the right lighting is essential for productivity. Bad, dim lighting promotes distraction, boredom, and lethargy that slow down your work process. Don’t rely on your laptop or desktop computer screen as your sole light source. Keep a small desk lamp on your desk and switch it on when you’re ready to get to work. The direct light will help you focus and stay more alert as you work. Opt for an LED light bulb and avoid bright white fluorescent or incandescent bulbs, which emit UV radiation that can damage your eyes through long-term exposure.
2. Your Essentials
If you don’t keep everything you need to get through a day’s work right on your desk, you’ll have to get up throughout the day to go retrieve items from your drawers, bag, car, or another room. These detours break your focus and are breeding grounds for distraction that eats into your daily productivity. Essentials are subjective; they’re different for every person. Take a moment to think about the items you use on a daily basis, especially those that you normally have to leave your workspace to find and use. Laptop chargers, lip balm, tissues, and are a few common essentials to consider.
3. An Organizer
The time you spend throughout the day rooting around your desk and office for items you need but can’t find adds up more quickly than you might think. Desk organizers might seem gimmicky and unnecessary, especially if the surface of your desk isn’t usually very cluttered. However, an organizer actually helps you neatly keep more items on your desk. This allows you to transfer essential from your desk drawers or other areas to the surface of your desk, where they’ll always be visible and within reach whenever you need them.
4. A Scented Candle
Keeping too many decorations on your desk will just get in your way. However, your workspace should be a pleasant environment with ambience of some kind. Adding a scented candle to the surface of your desk is a simple and effective way to make your desk a more atmospheric place to work. The warmth and comfort of a candle provides instant stress relief, and its scent can keep you feeling calm, cheerful, alert, and focused. Popular mood-lifting scents include citrus, vanilla, jasmine, and pine. Other scents–such as peppermint, cinnamon, and rosemary–have even been linked with increased productivity.
5. Water
Approximately seventy-five percent of adults suffer from mild dehydration at any given time. Common symptoms of dehydration include headaches, lightheadedness, sleepiness, and an inability to focus or concentrate. The onset of these symptoms can slow you down, destroy your daily productivity Make sure water is within your reach at all times when you want to stay focused and productive. Keep a reusable water bottle, mug, or tumbler on your desk and sip on it throughout the day. The recommended water intake for the average adult is about ten cups per day. That means you should get up to refill a standard 16-ounce water bottle four or five times in a day.
6. Post-It Notes
Always keep a stack of Post-It notes–along with a pen–on your desk, even if you don’t think you’ll use them. Jotting down reminders and other important information onto Post-It notes throughout the day helps keep you organized and focused on the task at hand. Typing information into your digital desktop planner or the Notes app on your phone is not a viable substitute for Post-Its. A scrap of paper is much less distracting than your smartphone. At the end of the day, transfer whatever you scribbled onto your Post-Its to a more secure place–like your planner or digital to-do list–to keep your information organized and keep yourself from drowning in a sea of unattended Post-Its. Pro tip: if you want to boost your productivity even more, grab a pack of neon Post-Its instead of the plain yellow ones. Bright colors stimulate your brain to help you focus, come up with more ideas, and remember information better.
7. No Triggers
This suggestion isn’t about what you should keep on your desk, but what you should keep far away from it if you want to have a successful productive day. Distraction is the number-one enemy of productivity, so keep any possible distractions away from your workspace. Distraction triggers vary from person to person. Non-essential technology–like your smartphone–are major productivity suckers for many people who get tempted to scroll through their Instagram feed (again) when they’re feeling bored or burned out. Try putting your iPhone in your bag or desk drawer at work, or leaving it in a completely different room if you work from home. If you keep distractions away from your workspace, you won’t be tempted to stray from the task at hand to engage in something more entertaining. If you want to make the most of every day and blast through your to-do list as quickly as possible, pay attention to how you set up your workspace. Take care to keep the right array of items on the surface of your desk to maximize your daily productivity and set yourself up for success.
