Workspace of the Week: A clean desk
This week’s Workspace of the Week is Nick’s clean again workstation:
I really like how Nick has managed to have four monitors in his cubicle without it overwhelming the space. Also, his description of how he cleaned his space is really terrific:
The first step is to take all the paper and dispose of it. See, I don’t remember the last time I actually needed to refer to a sheet of paper for more than about two days after it was printed or written on was maybe 2005. So, yeah, paper: gone.
Second: go through all the gadgets, cables, toys, and everything else. Either find a place for it, put it in the “take it home pile,” or discard it. Most cables ended up wrapped up nicely and neatly and placed in my drawer.
Third: dust removal. It took three paper towels to get through it all. But, now there’s no dust.
Fourth: Rearrange. With all of maybe 10 things left on my desk (4 monitors, pens+pads (counts as one thing to me), phone, MSDN discs, USB hub, keyboard, mouse), it was just a matter of placing it all in usable positions again.
Fifth: take a picture. Smile, happy clean desk!
Thank you, Nick, for such a fun submission!
Want to have your own workspace featured in Workspace of the Week? Submit a picture to the Unclutterer flickr pool. Check it out because we have a nice little community brewing there. Also, don’t forget that workspaces aren’t just desks. If you’re a cook, it’s a kitchen; if you’re a carpenter, it’s your workbench.
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Posted by Erin on Aug 8, 2008 |
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10 comments posted
Posted by Deb - 08/08/2008
Beautiful set-up! I see the desk is a Galant model from Ikea. I am using that one at home and I can vouch for it’s unclutter-friendly design.
Posted by Fit Bottomed Girls - 08/08/2008
There is NOTHING better than a clean, organized desk. This is maybe a little bare for me, but still much for relaxing and easier to work in than a messy one!
Posted by Ron - 08/08/2008
I got on a cleaning frenzy couple of night ago and did almost the same steps to clean my space. It was so clean and pretty afterwards I wanted to take a picture. But I didn’t. I need to do that.
Posted by Nick - 08/08/2008
Wow, I didn’t expect to see it show up here. Thanks for sharing it!
Posted by Ann at One Bag Nation - 08/08/2008
Pretty impressive, especially the lack of paper. I’d probably need more in the way of decoration or something personal, but I love the clear workspace.
At the moment, I’m sitting surrounded by piles of paper, but I hope to make them disappear before the day is over!
Posted by Matt R. @ YFNCG.com - 08/08/2008
What is your profession Nick?
Posted by Nick - 08/08/2008
@Matt R.: Computer programmer. That’s where all the screens come in handy – one for documentation, one for code, one for program, and one for “other.”
Posted by Sam - 08/08/2008
ah, I was just wondering what the heck you’d do with four screens – why would anyone need that many!!!
And your answer makes me realise that I could do with two or more screens so that I can do things like write a strategic document without having papers strewn all over the place and still have the library database up! Although I don’t think that the IT dept would let me get away with that!
Posted by Nashville Awesome - 08/11/2009
That many monitors would be too distracting to get anything done efficiently. But I do wish I could find a way to have my desk that clear of visual pollution.
Posted by Kelly - 08/17/2009
I am unable to get rid of all of my paper. I work in publishing and some departments in our company work only on hard copies (others use pdf markup). That means that I have to keep stacks of papers with sticky notes hanging from the sides until well after our publication date. I would love to follow your lead, but just can’t.
I also use two (smaller) monitors — it’s fantastic.
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