A cluttered, messy desk can negatively impact your ability to perform your job.

Here are some things you should never keep on your desk


Organisation comes naturally to some, but for others, it’s just not in their nature. Maybe you’re too busy to clean up, or perhaps organised chaos works well for you. You spend a majority of your day at work and a messy desk can negatively impact productivity. Additionally, some of the items you keep on your desk may not be appropriate for the workplace, such as political items or documents with sensitive information. Whether your place of work is cubicle, corner office, or open layout, here are some things you should never keep at your desk:

Lunch


You may think it’s wise to eat lunch at your desk, when in fact, it could hurt your productivity. In a 2015 study, Professor Kimberly Elsbach of the University of California, Davis Graduate School of Management noted, “We know that creativity and innovation happen when people change their environment, and especially when they expose themselves to a nature-like environment, to a natural environment.” So, staying inside, in the same location, is detrimental to creative thinking. It’s also detrimental to doing that rumination that’s needed for ideas to percolate and gestate and allow a person to arrive at an ‘aha’ moment,” Elsbach said.

Your cell phone

This may be the most difficult for people to get behind. “Most of what’s on our mobile devices are distractions from what will propel us forward,” Judge Graham, executive leadership expert and author says. Prefer the old-fashioned landline.

It allows you to be in touch only for business reasons, therefore allowing your phone time to generate value only for business.

A study published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research found that your phone’s mere presence can distract you, even if it’s on silent or powered off.

Sweets

Avoid keeping cookies, candy, or chocolate at your desk if you’re trying to stay healthy. “It’s far too easy to go into autopilot and keep munching while you’re diverted by a task, especially during the usual earlyafternoon slump,” Ben Taylor, founder of HomeWorkingClub, says. “Whether you work in an office or at home, keep the highcalorie snacks in the kitchen or the break area, so you have to make a special effort to dig in,” he says.

Resume

Unless your company has announced a mass layoff and you are certain that your position will be eliminated, having a resume visible for everyone to see sends a clear message that you are looking for a job. If your boss were to see it or hear about it, it could break their trust, which is hard to earn back.