How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster? 16

[vicelikecoco]

i found several tips to organize your desk to be more efficient and rise your performance at work specially that engineering required clear and organized minds:

1-Clear spacelan to maintain a clear area right in front of you, at least the size of a desk blotter. This is the space where you will work on your current project. It should not have stacks of papers and miscellaneous objects occupying the area. When you have finished working on the project for the moment, put all the papers into a folder and back into your project drawer.

2-Telephone:The optimal placement for a phone is on your left side if you are right handed. That leaves your right hand free for taking notes without having a phone cord cutting in front of you and across your neck. Even better is to have a head set. Then you can type directly into your computer when you're scheduling appointments or jotting down follow-up tasks.

3-Computerlace the monitor directly in front of you but set back further. Since you want to keep the blotter space open for projects, you don't want your keyboard placed right there. Using a keyboard tray to store under your desk when not in use allows you to keep the blotter space open. You can then still type without twisting and placing stress on your muscles.

4-Frequently Used Items:What you use on a daily basis should be placed within arm's reach on the desktop so that you do not have to bend, stand, or swivel in your chair to reach these. A stapler and a small container for pens and pencils would be examples.

5-Desk Drawers:Those items less frequently used, such as a pencil sharpener, scissors or a tape dispenser be placed in a desk drawer. Clear out the old food condiment packages and the accumulated file folders that you do not refer to any more. If you are fortunate to have desk drawer that will support hanging files, these should house your current project files and your tickler files (the To-Do items that you will be following up on). If you do not have any space for files in your desk, consider a two-drawer rolling file cabinet that can be placed next to your desk. Place action files in the top compartment and project files in the lower one.

6-Lighting:Is there sufficient light so that you are not straining your eyes? If you leave your office each day with a headache or tired eyes, make sure that lighting is not a cause. Test different arrangements to see which one you are most comfortable with. Be sure that your computer monitor is not reflecting the glare of the sun or of a direct light fixture. Change the angle of the monitor slightly to see if that might be more restful on your eyes.

7-Desk Position:Are you distracted when you are seated at your desk? It could be because the physical setup is not efficient. Angle your desk for a different perspective. Feng shui principles frown on having your back to a door, leaving you vulnerable, but you also do not want to have your desk placed so that you make eye contact with every person that walks by.

 

[dvd]

It would be nice to work someplace where the management had these type of nice, clear-cut expectations for completely irrelevant aspects of engineering.

 

[ivymike]

Correction:
Computer: Place one monitor directly in front of you. Place another monitor immediately to its left. Place another monitor immediately to its right.

 

[ivymike]

oh, and all monitors should be arranged so that they're roughly perpendicular to your gaze, and the same distance from your eyes.

 

[Twoballcane]

man you have way to much time on your hands...

Tobalcane
"If you avoid failure, you also avoid success."

 

[TheTick]

Keep your desk messy so you look busy. Helps to avert unwanted assignments. Anything that is "dropped off" while you weren't there can be conveniently buried.

 

[JohnRBaker]

I use the 'stack & discard' method.

Everything is placed in a single stack on the side of your desk. As you access and work on something, you remove it from within the stack and then place it back on the top when you're done or need to work on something else. Every Friday afternoon, you remove the bottom one inch of the stack and discard. Since the advent of email, the period of time between discard operations has tended to lengthen until it's now about once every 3 months, but it's still as effective as ever a means of both keeping your work prioritized as well as being able to clean-out the obsolete or irrelevant material ;-)

"A clean desk is the sign of a sick mind."

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[Ron]

What's a desk...I haven't seen the top of mine in years.

 

[apsix]

"Feng shui principles frown on having your back to a door"

Quite so, but what does Tai Chi recommend, and what about all the other irrelevant eastern philosophies?

 

[JohnRBaker]

In my office I had to make sure that I positioned myself so that there was nothing between my chair and the motion-sensor on the light-switch. After all, it's bad form to be sitting in your office and suddenly have the lights go off, particularly if one of your co-workers notices it (they all know about the motion-sensors ;-)

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[GregLocock]

Never have more than 2 keyboards and 3 mice on 1 desk. It is too confusing.

Even though it costs tens of dollars to print out a large drawing, throw them away when you've finished with them.

Any printout that has no handwriting on it is inherently worthless. Throw it away, deal with it, or read it.


Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[SomptingGuy]

I worked somewhere once, where there was a clear dispute between the departmental kiss-up and the departmental technical guru. The kiss-up's office was always tidy and the desk clean; the guru's office was a shambles and his desk hadn't been seen in years.

The kiss-up persuaded the boss that a clean desk policy was required "for reasons of client confidentiality". The guru's retort: "In that case I don't want a desk in my office."

- Steve

 

[brandoncdg]

At my last job the busiest people who worked the insane hours always had the lights turning off on them in the 4am or 7pm hours. Yes I had enough of that nonsense after about 1 year of lights turning off. =p

I think clearing your desk and drawers once a month of all the junk helped a lot. Also go through your piles of plans and toss everything that isn't important. I had to actually do that every 2 weeks during the rushes.

I also have never seen a clean desk or office from any productive person that I have ever worked with. The principals were the worst of them, since they had a huge office that was a mess.

Now that I try to work from home, I have to try to clean every other day before the work engulfs me.

BTW position your main monitor in front of you. Put another monitor to the side. And the other monitor of other info somewhere else. That last monitor I always used for Land Desktop info.

Civil Development Group, LLC
Los Angeles Civil Engineering specializing in Hillside Grading

http://civildevelopmentgroup.com

http://civildevelopmentgroup.com/blog

 

[MortenA]

Dont give the guy that much heat!

I "cleaned up" my desc a couple of years ago - and to my surprice i found that it was actually comforting!

Most of it can also be found in "7 habits..."

Best regards

Morten

 

[Waidesworld]

One of the owners came by my desk one day and suggested I clean it up. I was in no mood for him and suggested he clean his desk first before shouting at others.

He spent some time cleaning his office in the next month and approached me again about the subject.

I simply explained that I know where everything is and cleaning my desk is less important that getting the next sale. He left me alone since...

drawn to design, designed to draw

 

[ivymike]

lucky he didn't say "no.. I mean CLEAN YOUR DESK NOW AND GTFO."

 

[ScottyUK]

My desk was once described as resembling a landfill site. In an uncharacteristic display of tact I refrained from asking the manager who'd made the observation what he actually did for a living other than talk sh¡t.


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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!

 

[FSS]

Come on, am I the only one who uses Post-It notes as the primary means of work organization? Shoot, I even use them on my keys so I don't forget stuff when leaving.

 

[JohnRBaker]

At the moment I could only count 15 yellow post-it notes on various flat surfaces around my desk area. Note that I also have a magnetic white-board with another 11 items being held up by various vinyl magnets, some of which carry their own specific 'message', as well as all the stuff that's scribbled on the board itself going back in some cases a year or better (I hope I can actually erase the stuff off when I need the space). And then there's the stuff held up by push-pins on the back of the credenza in my office, although most of those are family photos, including my four lovely granddaughters (who unfortunately live in Texas so we don't get to see them as often as we would like to), but it does also include my current 'engineering license' (not the big fancy framed one on my 'ego wall', but the actual legal document which I'm required to display in a 'prominent manner' in my 'place of business'). And speaking of the 'walls' in my office, in addition to the dozen or so items on my 'ego wall', there are calendars and other items of inspiration and information scattered about (I have no windows so you have to provide your own 'views').

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[YoungTurk]

Oh, boy, wait till my 5S team finds that post... I'm already in hot water for not having the appropriate bubbles and colors and backgrounds on my desk map.

I keep a stack of useless printouts to hand to useless people who stop by asking useless questions. Work with an impending deadline goes in front, anything and everything else in back. Post-Its if its something I actually want to remember.

Most importantly, picture of wife (and maybe a vacation snap) right next to the monitor to keep from going insane without turning my head at some awkward angle. How's that for ergo-shui?