Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter
My Kingdom for a Desk
I was talking to my sister about how our kids don’t do their homework at their desks but we still want them to each have their own. My sister recalled how nuts it made our mom when my sister persisted in doing her homework on her bed instead of her brand-new desk. But even if my younger son never sits at his desk (and how can he when the turtle tank takes up the whole surface), it still serves a purpose. His desk is where his pens and pencils live, it’s where he keeps his protractor and his index cards. It’s home base for school supplies and important things he doesn’t want to lose. Having it keeps him organized and teaches him the concept of having a place for everything.
I often urge my clients to get a desk, even when space is tight. There is usually room for some kind of desk area, even if it is just a laptop and a pencil caddy on top of a file cabinet. Having a desk keeps you from being scattered: bills on the dining table, insurance forms on the coffee table, the field trip permission slip you couldn’t find, inexplicably, on the bookshelf. I have a few clients with several desks, which can be just as big a problem as no desk at all because you have more than one place to look for whatever papers you need.
Personally, I like to work at my desk. I like that I have everything I need (envelopes, printer, files) within easy reach. I also like that when I am sitting at my desk I am working, and so when I am not sitting at my desk I am not working. I find being at my desk focuses me on the task at hand. It’s important to create boundaries in this era of constant electronic communication. (A desk can also act as a natural boundary, reminding us not to overbuy office supplies, because we know that the desk drawer we’ve designated for supplies is already full.)
When your things scattered all over the place, you are scattered—the opposite of organized. A desk gives you a single location, a hub where you can focus on specific tasks and store important papers. In these days of tweets and texts, emails and Facebook, anything that helps you focus is a good thing.
So get a desk—or get rid of extra ones—and see if you can’t bring things into focus.