Organising home office desks: 5 quick tips to improve efficiency

1. Note down your niggles

Before you can solve a problem, you need to define it. Frustration with our home working environments is usually a combination of small irritations which we push aside until they become a general feeling of discontent.

The solution is to start keeping a written record of what is annoying and inefficient about your current set-up. Be specific. Is your desk strewn with messy folders and stationery? Do you keep knocking over the cactus when you reach for a glass of water? Do you have to plug your laptop in at the far end of the room to charge it?

If you find it easier, you could record voice memos instead of written notes.

2. Solve the simple problems first

Once you've carried out the first step, you may be able to identify some quick wins. Is there room on your desk for an in-tray and small stationery pot to contain those messy documents, pens and pencils?

Would fetching the extension lead from the spare room enable you to charge your devices next to your desk?

Could you move the cactus to the bookshelf?

Even taking one or two practical actions will move you further along the road to ideal workplace organisation.

3. Depersonalise your immediate working space

Personalising your working space was brought in by forward-thinking companies as part of the drive towards improving wellbeing at work. We were encouraged to bring in photos of the children, desk toys and potted plants to feel more content in our day jobs.

Many of us have continued that idea when working from home, cramming our home office desks with framed photos, candles, plants, inspirational books and all sorts of other odds and ends. But if you work from home, this makes no sense. We can put photos and pictures on the wall. We can place potted plants and books on a separate table or bookshelf.

For maximum efficiency, remove everything from your desk that doesn't have a practical function. How much space can you free up?

4. Adjust the height of your laptop or monitor

Inefficiency is sometimes a symptom of discomfort rather than disorganisation. A common culprit is a laptop or monitor that is positioned too low. This can cause poor posture which will distract you in the present and lead to health problems in the future.

Some home office desks can be raised, but if yours doesn't have this feature, you could place a box file, large book or some other item underneath your laptop or monitor to get it to a comfortable height.

5. Never close the door on an untidy office

Even the most organised home office desks will soon become cluttered if you don't tidy things away at the end of the day. Now that you have depersonalised your workspace, it should be relatively easy for you to keep it clean and clear, but it will help if you can build in a simple rule: before you close your home office door for the night, restore your desk to the state it was in when you started work.

That means taking coffee cups and water pitchers to the kitchen, putting pens, pencils, documents and folders in their 'homes', powering down your devices and wiping down your desk. It's a five minute job but it will save you much more time in the long run by improving your overall productivity.

Have you seen our range of sustainable and stylish wooden home office desks?

While the above tips will help any home worker, there are few actions better for optimising productivity than finding the perfect desk for your home office space.

Most of our skilfully handmade home office desks are made from reclaimed wood with a range of legs to choose from. The dimensions can even be customised to fit your room.

Take a look at our dedicated Home or Office Desks page and let us know if you have any queries.