How to Set Up Your Desk: A Guide to Fixing a (Surprisingly) Overlooked Productivity Problem

by Matt Perman

Set your desk up well in order to minimize resistance so that you can give your focus and energy to actually doing your work.

So we don’t have the end of paper, but we do have the end of dealing with paper alone. The most effective desk setup recognizes this, and is designed for the integrated utilization of paper-based and electronic-based workflow.

The best way to keep things on your desktop to a minimum is to only give something a permanent place on your desktop if you use it more than once a day. Even then, if it is easy to access that item via a drawer, it should probably go in a drawer.

What goes on your desktop permanently is the equipment used for doing your work. Any work items flow across your desk, but should not stay long. Things that you need to keep around go into files, not piles on the desktop.

you need to have an area that is designated for holding this type of “pending” support material. That’s what the project shelf is for. You want it generally out of the way so that it isn’t bugging you, but you also want it generally accessible.

good works are not just rare and special things that we do. They are anything that we do in faith. Consequently, the arena for most of our good works is not chiefly the mission field, but rather our workplaces and homes.

A good desk setup, then, is not only nice in itself; it is also an opportunity to increase our effectiveness in serving others.