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How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?
15

How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

2
(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.
 

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

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

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

2
Correction:
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?

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

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

2
man you have way to much time on your hands...

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

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

2
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.

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

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 winky smile

"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?

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

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

"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?

 

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

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 winky smile

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?

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: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies  http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

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

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

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

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

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

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

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

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

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

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

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.
  

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

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

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.

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

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.
 

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

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?

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

I have a bad case of monkey brain.  "Away" is the same as "gone", so I can't bring myself to file anything I'm not 100% sure I'm absolutely done with.  (Yeah, we're supposed to pick up the notion of object permanence around the age of two, but some of us are slow.)

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?

2
I never used to be concerned about a messy desk.  Then I went to a time management seminar, and the speaker said looking for stuff was the biggest time waster most people have.  I didn't believe him at first, but after that I began to take note every time I was digging through piles looking for stuff.  I was amazed at how much time I really spent doing that.  One of my worst habits was when I would finally file something away, I would accidently get ahold of unrelated documents and file those away in the folders where they didn't belog.  Whenever I couldn't find something, I would start pulling out the files I had recently filed, and that is where I would find the missing items.  My desk still isn't always neat and tiday, but I'm doing better, and it really does save time.

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

Looking for stuff is indeed a big time waster.

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?

2
I think this link says it all:

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?

I put a shiney object in my cubicle so I know if someone is behind me LOL.  But dont put a mirror because that is just too obvious.  But this trick will not make  you finish your work faster.  It just make you surf the internet faster.

Never, but never question engineer's judgment

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

I'm currently facing a dark window.  I see them coming.  I even know who they are.  I kind of like it.

- Steve

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

I have a small clutter on my desk.  Post-its galore, the errant business card, etc, etc.  Every so often I will clear it off and semi-organize it into manageable piles.  It seems to last roughly 24 hours or so.  Man simply was not meant to function efficiently on L-shaped work surfaces, never mind remain tidy on one.


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?

ykee, it sounds like I could have written that book.  I just had to order it.  Thanks, and a shiny new magenta star is on it's way to you winky smile

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?

Mike:  I'm with you on Agent Ransack.  The search function in Vista just doesn't work, which is inexcusable for such a basic utility that's worked just fine through so many operating systems.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies:  FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

BTW, the book just arrived and am going to start it today as my lunchtime read, that is if I can still find it in this mess when noon rolls around winky smile

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?

Only using your desktop is under utilisation of your knowledge cluster domain (or work space as you plebs would say). Any management consultant guru will tell you that. Once the desktop is full and stuff can no longer balance on anything else, then overspill on to the floor. For those who have been promoted to a window seat, then also use the window sill. The telephone can be placed anywhere or even hidden under a pile of paper, as when it wants to be used it just makes a ringing noise. Ingenious.

corus

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

That's exactly what I do in my window seat.
Who knew wink

peace
Fe

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

Hey, that's my office, right down to the buried phone!  And if I bury it right, in between layers, it develops a characteristic muffled ring so that I can recognize it from across the room.  Unfortunately, a forced cleanup last year shifted the phone such that it now sounds like two other people's.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies:  FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

How should an Engineer/Fire Fighter organize his desk?

I think it's under here someplace.

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

Hi Guys
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?

Now that was a cool tip, Young'un.

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

1) Every piece of correspondence you receive : draw a cross in the top right hand corner.

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?

"noughts and crosses"  tic-tac-toe?
"waste paper bin"  uh, same name here

 

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

Back in the 80's we acquired a software company out of Cambridge, England, and on our internal 'notes' system someone started a thread titled 'Dress Code' where we posted, from both sides of the pond, observations with respect to many things about how we worked from day to day and one popular topic was the proper (or improper, depending on your perspective) use of the English language.  One of the best was when one of the UK guys was over on a short term assignment and he mailed a picture back to the office of him standing in front of a 'Coke' machine under a sign which said 'Drug' Store.  Apparently, at least back then, the words 'Coke' and 'Drug' had a much more limited usage in the UK as compared to here in the states.

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 dont so that I dont get other things on top of what I am working on, makes finishing the first stuff faster. ;)

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

"Hi Guys
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. upsidedown  Baffle your friends and coworkers.  curse

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

In the old days, back when we were all on dumb-displays serially connected to a mainframe, you used to be able to 'broadcast' messages to the screen of your coworker's stations (sort of an early form of 'text messaging') and what you would do is send a 'Ctrl-G' (which would ring a bell) followed immediately by the command (which I've forgotten) which would perform a 'display reset'.  Anyway, it would look and act (getting a bell and then you screen flashing and going blank) just like a fatal crash.  Now nothing was lost as all they had to do was just ask for the screen to redisplay, but for a few seconds you could really mess with someones head winky smile  

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?

In the slightly less old days, when we all used X-Windows on UNIX computers for "real" work, the policy was to have your screen totally open, so that applications could display on it remotely.  It was possible in a single command line to make an exact copy of a remote screen and then display that image over said screen, and with the right switches, deactivate the mouse buttons.  The returning user would be left with the screen looking exactly as they'd left it, only now totally inoperable.  Always amusing to watch them try to solve the puzzle.
 

- Steve

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

I'm every day clean and organize my desk and I'm happy for doing that, but I'm feel everybody of my  companion look at me and say in his self or directly to me (oh what crazy and cleaning show off)     

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

Screw organizing my desk.  I wish there was a better way to keep my tool box organized.  Never fails, every time I rearrange everything in there just the way I like it, I go and open it upside down.  And what about my box of leads?  I try my best to keep each lead tied up so they don't end up in a tangled mess, but they still always end up in a tangles mess.  ARGH!!!

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

my desk only has a little space for a keyboard. the rest is covered with paper in a random heap. and i cant find time to attempt to clean it. but it works for me since the highest priority work always ends up on top. People have offered to clean it but i refuse their offer. i am afraid that they will mess up my system.

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

Helped me to cut down my working hrs :) nice post thanks

RE: How to Organize Your Desk to Finish Work Faster?

Wow, my score = 7/7
Either I've read that list before or I'm naturally a neat-freak.
 

Steven Fahey, CET

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