How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
2
vicelikecoco (Mechanical)
(OP)
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 space:Plan 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-Computer:Place 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.
1-Clear space:Plan 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-Computer:Place 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.





RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
Computer: Place one monitor directly in front of you. Place another monitor immediately to its left. Place another monitor immediately to its right.
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
Tobalcane
"If you avoid failure, you also avoid success."
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
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.
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
Quite so, but what does Tai Chi recommend, and what about all the other irrelevant eastern philosophies?
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
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.
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
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: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
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
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
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
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
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
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
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
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
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.
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
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?
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
As a result, the place is enough of a mess that I got busted last year by the occupational safety people. (I guess they were fearing a landslide.)
Hg
Eng-Tips policies: FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
However, my lamellar filing system is capable of instant retrieval. ... so long as no one, e.g. an S.O., disturbs a pile.
;---
Last place I worked filed stuff in Outlook messages. Not in Outlook, and not in Exchange, where Outlook could search them; their IT department limited every user to 65-ish Mb of storage, which is not much by today's standards. Messages were moved to folders by project, renamed by the Project Manager/Clerk to what he/she thought they were about. Talk about looking for stuff wasting time...
Did you know that Windows Explorer's Search function doesn't necessarily look everywhere you tell it to?
A great piece of software called Agent Ransack does; it's the search that should have been built in, in the first place.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
http://www.aperfectmess.com/messy_desks.html
keeping a really tidy workspace is not only a waste of time, but is conterproductive.
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
Never, but never question engineer's judgment
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
- Steve
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
Of course, the crowning architectural highlight of my desk is the dust-laden stack of "I'll take a look at it when I get a chance" pile for those coworkers who shall forever remain affixed at the bottom of my personal totem pole...
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
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.
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
Hg
Eng-Tips policies: FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
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.
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
corus
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
Who knew
Fe
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
Hg
Eng-Tips policies: FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
I think it's under here someplace.
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
I´ve found that having my screen rotated to portrait view saves me a little time, esp when dealing with word and pdfs.
If your computer accepts this jut press: CTRL + ALT + Left Arrow
Rg
Matt
www.youngengineeronline.com
'Tips and Down-To-Earth Advice for Young Engineers'
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
Game is a bit like noughts and crosses (does that translate into american?)
Top row is company
Left side row is you
So if it benefits you AND company : put an "x" in the top left box. Put this in "immediate" file
If it does not benefit you OR company : put an "x" in the bottom right box. Consign this to WPB file (waste paper bin - trash can in USA).
If it benefits company NOT you : put an "x" in the top right box. Put this in "pending" file
If it benefits you NOT company: put an "x" in the bottom left box. Take this home and action whilst wife reads book. (Apologies to all those excellent femail engineers I meet).
2) Write down each night before you leave the actions you must take the next day. Number them in priority. ALWAYS look at this before calling police, fire service etc.
3) When your boss says he is going to re organise you and your colleagues: Do not fight (conflict wastes time). Agree. Hand him the departmental policy documents (which you have in bottom drawer - and wrote 20 years ago....) and suggest he marks them up with his suggestions and agrees with quality, health and safety, human resources, etc and get their agreement before imposing. Never fails.
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
"waste paper bin" uh, same name here
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
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.
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
I´ve found that having my screen rotated to portrait view saves me a little time, esp when dealing with word and pdfs.
If your computer accepts this jut press: CTRL + ALT + Left Arrow"
This isn't widely known, so remember it for April 1. Down arrow turns it upside down.
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
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.
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
- Steve
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
Cheers
Greg Locock
New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
Either I've read that list before or I'm naturally a neat-freak.
Steven Fahey, CET