Are you lucky enough to have your own workspace? I don’t mean the end of the kitchen table where you have to pack up every time you need to eat. I mean a dedicated area that is yours alone. If you do, then sing praises to the heavens, because you are blessed. If not, then read on to discover a few ways to make the transition from breakfast to office move a little more smoothly. This article will deal with both scenarios — so office owners, you may just gain a new insight too.
How is your desk organized? Is everything to hand and easily accessible? Or is it a dumping ground for everything that does not have an official home somewhere else? If the former; you need read no further, for the Force is strong with you. If the latter, read on, and you’ll be an official Jedi Master at the end, the proud owner of a functioning workspace where you can be unblocked and productively working at your writing again.
Step one should be fairly obvious — find a different place to put the things that don’t belong on your desk. Whether it’s a spanner, or a sewing kit, or anything in between. If it can’t be used for writing, then it doesn’t belong on your desk.
Oh, and if you put your washing away on the same day that it comes off the line — that is also a big thumbs up.
In fact, take everything off the space and give it a good dust. The first thing that you put back is your computer. Now sit in your chair and get that computer in the exact right position for you. If you use a separate keyboard for a laptop, then that, your mouse and mouse mat are next.
Do you like music when you write? iTunes makes things very easy to listen to, but you may prefer a favorite CD. A small CD player could sit on your desk. Again, check its position so that changing a CD will not interrupt the flow of your writing too much, and put your Bible and a pen cup neatly to the side.
Depending on your style of desk, you may also have the space for research books, drawers for your files, a place to store your printer paper, and the printer as well. Ideally you will have the printer close enough to the desk that you will not have to leave your desk to retrieve your pages — nothing like a traipse to another part of the house to remove a paper jam, or refill the ink cartridges to disrupt you productivity.
Also, for every six or so pages that you write, you should stand up, ‘bend and stretch and reach for the sky’ (you now have that earworm in your brain all day — you’re welcome). No, seriously, you do need to stretch periodically when you’re at a desk all day.
A note on chairs as well. Make sure that your chair is the right height for you as well as your desk. If you are really short, by which I mean that your feet don’t touch the floor when you sit with the chair high enough to comfortably see the computer, think of investing in a foot stool.
Now we have the basics; the computer, the chair, the printer to hand, your Bible and pens, and some music to groove to.
And yet it’s lacking… something.
This is your Sanctuary, your space, and it requires the personal touch. A nice cup that you only use when writing, for some quirky designs, I recommend Typo, they are also my favorite place to shop for notebooks, and have a wide range of other trinkets to boot.
I will rave all day when I find a pen that I love, and I would recommend Pilot’s FriXion clicker. The ink flows well, they are comfortable hold for all of that extensive note taking that you’ve been doing and JOY, they are also erasable should you change your mind as to how to phrase things. There is also a wide range of colors, should you choose to color code anything.
Some people can’t write without a nicely scented candle, or some incense burning, and you will need to take the necessary precautions, also precautions if you choose to put a vase of live flowers on your desk — water and computers just don’t play nicely together.
Make your desk a veritable pleasure palace and you will form neural pathways that trigger the urge to write as soon as you take your seat.
Now, that is what we’re aiming at.
Of course, you may have the polar opposite of your own desk (which, in the ideal world lives in its own room, with a lockable door, surrounded by bookshelves… sorry, drooling now)
And you may be forced to share the kitchen table with assorted pieces of Lego, a pile of bills that you’re sorting out, and a random piece of KFC hiding under a pile of plastic bags (at least now you know why little Schnitzel has been pogoing ceaselessly since Wednesday night…
Again, step one is to clean your space (goodbye KFC — sorry Schnitzel), but we are going to have to arrange things a little differently. Since this is a space that will have to be set up/ taken down regularly, you will need to make the process as easy and efficient as you possibly can, or you will be exhausted before you even begin. This is going to create resistance to your writing (remember the neural pathways? We want them smooth and tangle free #sunsilk).
I’ll work from the assumption that you are using a laptop from this point forward because it is more compact and portable. Your next step is to find a basket, a sturdy fabric bag, or a plastic crate to pack your supplies in. If you can find one, and you may have to go to a large office supplies shop for it, but an Office in a Box is great. A plastic crate with a lid (hence dust free), it has been designed to store hanging file folders, and functions as a portable filing cabinet. Everything that I have suggested for your desk should be able to fit neatly inside — except for the flowers. Don’t put those is there. Now you are only down to the basics that you need to be able to work, your computer, your box of supplies, and your coffee or tea. It’s not ideal, but still a better neural pathway than the oh-god-I’ve-forgotten-my-pen-for-the-seventieth-time-it’s-getting-later-now-where’s-my-notebook-i-think-that-I’ll-pack-up-and-try-again-tomorrow-or-maybe-next-week. We’re aiming at making writing a smooth and easy process, not an exercise in frustration.
Your writing deserves the best you that it is possible to bring. Set yourself up for success by having a workspace that serves both it and you.
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