I've worked at the same place for almost five years. I've had the same desk for about four of those years (there was some major re-organization and remodeling soon after I started, but for the most part, I've been in the same place). I work in another department occasionally, but my "home desk" is where my personal stuff - calendar, photos, coffee mug, water bottle, etc. - reside.
We have a new coworker, and in preparation for his arrival, a desk was emptied and cleared. We updated deadline sheets, phone lists and other pertinent information that we thought would help welcome him to the new job.
It made me think about my own workspace. So I decided to simplify it.
I'm often teased about the
insane moderate number of photos I keep on my desk of the cutest baby in the world. So I started there.
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| Unmoving focal point :) August 2010. |
I wanted to keep several photos of Elle in plain sight, but I wanted them to be special photos, not just "every cute photo I have every taken of my daughter." I have a photo album flip book on my desk that now holds the accumulated/swapped out photos like that, but a special few remain tacked up to my desk.
I targeted the random notes all over my workspace next. I threw away the older, irrelevant ones, consolidated log-in name and password information and made things significantly more organized.
Then I went through the framed photos, little knick-knacks and silly memorabilia on my desk. One thing is sure - I have a lot of photos from various times and places in my life!
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| With my youngest brother Doug at my other brother's wedding, Aug. 2007. |
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| With Meghan at a college newspaper banquet, May 2003. |
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| With Jen at a Starbucks (of course!), fall 2002ish? |
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| With my sister, Christmas 2005. |
I tossed the toys in a drawer (we have a lot of kids-of-employees in at various times, and my desk has been an endless source of entertainment).
Going through the framed photos was like sifting through a time capsule, and it was very revealing - there were framed photos of people who quite simply no longer need to be in framed photos on my desk.
And photos of people (and animals!) who definitely do.
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| December 2007. |
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| November 2008. |
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| March 2011. |
The end result of the Great Desk Cleaning on 2011 is refreshing. There is less clutter. There is more meaning. There is more organization. The phone lists and passwords are easily accessible, the workspace is much more open. The photos that *do* remain on my desk are of the people who are nearest and dearest to me, arranged so that no matter where I turn, I see reminders of my life - the parts that don't exist within the realms of my 40-hour+ work week, work station and time card.
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And just in case I forget while I'm in the office:
The boss of my very much non-desk job :) |
