A desk drawer can be a beautiful thing that makes your work seem enjoyable, or a black hole of chaos that frustrates you every time you open it. After all, how you feel about your workspace affects your productivity more than you might think.
During my former career in home-decorating magazines, I learned a thing or two about how to set up drawer space efficiently. Here are a few tips to get you started:
BE RUTHLESS ABOUT WHAT NEEDS TO BE ON YOUR DESK
Before you even yank open your desk drawer and start thinking about how to reorganize it, you first need to decide what should be on your desktop. Drawers can help you declutter the surface of your workspace, but they often suffer as a result: The mess that isn’t out in front of you is hiding just out of view, causing trouble despite being out of sight.