Using 5S to Organize Your Desk

When your desk, whether at home or the office, is disorganized, it can be hard to get work done. Its cluttered nature is a reflection of your mental state, which can negatively impact your productivity. This is because it usually means that your thoughts and ideas are in disarray as well.

Luckily, with 5S, you can organize your desk, and by extension, your thoughts and mental processes for increased productivity. Here’s how:

Sort

Firstly, you need to sort your desk by removing anything that you rarely use. Leave only the items that are essential when doing your job. If you work with electronic equipment, make sure you arrange the wires neatly as well.

Set in Order

Organize the remaining items, placing them where they can easily be reached (in order of priority). And if you can easily reach it, it means that you can easily return it to maintain the order. Organizing your desk in this manner will increase both your efficiency and productivity.

Shine

Shine just means making sure that all the remaining items on your desk are clean. You need to clean them regularly to ensure that you aren’t working in a dirty environment. A clean environment is a safe, healthy, and productive environment.

Standardize

You need to devise a way to document the order which you have created on your desk. In the beginning, it can be hard to remember where everything is supposed to go. Documenting it can help you remember and maintain the order in the long run. You can simply take a picture of your desk to remind yourself how items should be arranged before you leave your desk.

Sustain

If you don’t sustain the order, your desk will return to being a cluttered mess over time, and productivity will drop. At the end of the workday, look at the picture you took of your desk to identify anything that doesn’t belong or is out of place. Then, you can take corrective action if necessary. Also, come up with a regular schedule to Shine your desk.