3 Easy Ways to Organize the Prime Real Estate in Your Office

What immediately comes to mind when you hear the term prime real estate? If you are like many, prime real estate conjures up an image of a spacious, well designed, extremely expensive office space in the heart of your city or town’s business district.

A building with plenty of amenities might come to mind. Proximity to the best restaurants and coffee bars, as well as accessibility to major transit hubs or highways for easy commuting and for facilitating the scheduling of meetings with key clients and suppliers would all be part of the vision.

In the same way that you would want a physical office location that is extremely accessible for commuting and meetings, this concept of prime real estate can also be applied to your actual workspace or office. In particular, you would focus on your desk and that area that is within an arm’s reach when you are seated at your desk.

Imagine sitting in your desk chair, extending your arm completely out at shoulder height, and spinning around in a complete circle. Everything within this radius is considered your office’s prime real estate. The objective is to organize your office so that you utilize this space for those items that are used most frequently. By doing so, you’ll positively impact your productivity.

3 Easy Ways to Organize the Prime Real Estate in Your Office

1. Storage Locations

Assess those storage locations that are most easily accessible when seated at your desk. In all probability, the primary storage will exist in/on the desk. Pay particular attention to the size and number of drawers, filing space, and the actual size of your desktop.

In assigning placement for those items that need to be kept in your prime real estate, be sure to place or store items that are used together in close proximity of each other. For example, store an extra ream of paper near your printer.

2. The Essentials

Make a list of those items that are used most frequently, as these are the ones that will need to be kept in/on your desk. Your list will probably include your computer, phone, lamp (if overhead lighting is not sufficient), in-box, pens, stapler, and so on.

Give serious thought to whether or not a specific item really needs to be given a prime location. For example, your printer could be across the room if space is at a premium, leaving room on your desk for a to-do box.

3. Minimize the Excess

While keeping a small supply of extra pens, file folders or binder clips on your desk is a smart move, a lifetime supply clutters up your limited storage space, taking away room that could be used for more necessary items like your phone charger or spare Post-it Notes (affiliate link).

Your goal should be to minimize the number of times during the day that you need to disrupt your workflow to go across the room to retrieve a key file or staples for your stapler.

What items do you keep on your desk?

*Original image from Amazon.com