- Get rid of old sticky notes and scrap paper. Sticky notes are small and can get lost easily. Get one notebook or agenda that can keep all of your to-do's, ideas, phone numbers, and appointments.
- Use your walls! Put up shelves, calendars, cork boards, or just hanging papers on the walls. This will save space on your and desktop, leaving it less cluttered.
- Prioritize: You don't need everything on your desk, a less cluttered one will look neater and you will be able to find things easier: for example, you may only need a cup for pens, pencils, markers, etc., your computer and some notebooks. Then, you can put extra papers and supplies in shelves or stackable trays. Even if you don't have shelves, you can get organizing binders for papers and stack them at the back of your desk, for easy access, yet out of the way when you need to work.
- Clean up once a day. Put all notebooks, pens, calculators, papers, rubber bands and anything else you took out back in it's place. If you work at your desk every day, but do not clean up after yourself, the mess will keep piling on. If once you are done with your work each day, you clear up the mess you made, it will keep it net and tidy for the next time you use it. It's easy to let it clutter up, but it is much more work if you do it all at once.