How to Set Up a Productive Desk or Workspace

Productivity for freelancers can rely heavily on the setup of a desk or workspace environment. Here are a few tips for how to set up a productive desk or workspace.

Your Desk Needs an Organizer

This is essential so you don’t run around your office space or home looking for little items you may need during your work day and ruin your concentration. The type of organizer may be a simple drawer organizer or even two or three cups that hold things.

• Pens
• Pencil
• Highlighter
• Marker
• Paper clips
• Stapler

Phone / Tablet Charger

Since you are sitting/hovering around your workspace, you should make sure your mobile devices are plugged in and available any time you are at your office space. This way, when it’s time to leave your “office,” your mobile devices will have a charge. This can eliminate stress if you get into a habit of charging your devices while “at work.” It may be worth it to purchase additional charging cables that you keep set up at your workspace and never leave your workspace.

Sticky Notes

You can use these as easy reminders of things that need to be done at a future time without breaking your concentration on what you are currently working on. Sticky notes are also a great way to end the day of work. Give yourself an assignment to handle when you arrive at “work” the next day. They can also be used to label other work projects, ideas, printouts, etc. for processing … or even to alert an assistant about what you need done next.

Headphones

Headphones aren’t always just a good thing for an actual work space in a real office environment. Sometimes putting on headphones in your home office can help in tuning out distractions around the house. (But make sure you let your dog out before you put the headphones on.)

Lint Roller

Sometimes, as freelancers, we are always on the move: from our desk to running errands to meeting clients all within the same hour. Making sure you have a lint roller (and maybe even Febreze) near your desk can assist in the “quick tidy” that may need to be done before seeing a client.

Photos / Personal Items

Don’t keep your desk ONLY work-related. Put something on your desk or on the wall that has a personal reminder of important people in your life that can be an encouragement for you to keep working, or to put a quick smile on your face when you are stressing, or even be a comfort on a bad day.

Hand Lotion / Sanitizer

Do you realize HOW dirty most computer keyboards/mice actually are? These items may be the dirtiest items on our desk/work environment and how often do we simply lift our hands to our face directly from the keyboard?

Timer

Anyone who works at a desk should get into the habit of setting a timer to FORCE yourself to get up … stand up … stretch … maybe walk around the block … and come back to work. Not only will this help keep your brain focused but it will keep the blood flowing correctly through the body. You could use a simple kitchen egg timer that you set for every 45min-90min and you make sure you take a mini-break when that goes off … EVEN if you have a deadline.

The Color Green

According to psychologists, if you stare at a color green (whether its a wall, a painting, or something else green within your straight eyesight) you can become more creative during your work hours. Here are a few other notes about colors:

• Blue stimulates the mind
• Yellow inspires creativity
• Red affects your body
• Green creates a calming balance

Ergonomic Layout

It is important that your monitor screen should be set at eye level and you shouldn’t be looking down or up at your screen. If you were to hold your arms at your side and only bring your forearms up at a 90 degree angle … THAT should be the location of your keyboard. Forearms should be parallel to the floor. Don’t forget to avoid eye strain by regularly cleaning your monitor screen.

Lighting

Research has shown that if the lighting isn’t good in your work environment (combination of natural light and mechanical light) a person can feel lethargic ESPECIALLY during the winter months.

Cluttered vs Sparse

There are two different camps. Some people say that a person will be more productive with an absolutely clean desk and others believe that a little bit of clutter/mess inspires creativity. I think this is more of a personal preference that may need some experimentation. Regardless of whether you are more of a cluttered or a sparse desk worker, you should integrate a few setup rules:

• Designate a physical inbox for things that COME into your office. Bills, children’s drawings, printouts, etc. You can set up a time to sort through this all at once rather than interrupting yourself to sort/file throughout the day.
• Have a trash can that is within reach … Not across the room for basketball practice.
• Schedule regular cleaning times for your “office” area.
• When in Doubt… THROW IT OUT!
• Learn to integrate a scanner system into your work area.

Emergent Task Planner

I recognize that my work is interruption driven and if I don’t plan for at least two things to be done I’ll never get anything done. Before you leave the desk/work environment each night, fill out one of these emergent task planner sheets to set 3 major tasks that you will do tomorrow. Leave it in the center of your desk as the FIRST thing you will look at when you sit down. This concept will keep you focused on what you must do each day and help you plan AROUND the interruptions.

White Board

Consider investing in a white board a marker to give you motivation areas, to-do’s, visible scratchpads, etc. Having a whiteboard can help keep planning OUTSIDE of your own head.

Large Screen TV with Chromecast

The ability to throw a screen/browser area up on a large screen can be great for presentations, quality control and even online group meetings.

What do you use to organize your desk and/or workplace environment to help stay productive?  Do you have a photo of your workspace you would like to share?  Add it to the comments below to continue this conversation.