Workspace makeover #2!
4 tips on how to place your desk

When you’re about to arrange or rearrange your office, it could be smart to start with where to put your desk.

You see, the desk might be the most important piece in your whole workspace because that’s where you’ll be doing, at least some of, your awesome work.

Read along and you’ll get some easy to follow guidelines!

Face the desk challenge – and face your creativity

So, this is all about arranging your office, and in particular where to put your desk, so you can feel the best, most efficient and motivated.

You might think “has the place of the desk anything to do with that” – and funnily enough, it has.

Big time.

Because when you sit down to work, it’s important that you feel inspired, creative and empowered – and how you place the desk can help you feel that way.

Or more; what you see and face from the desk, has an impact on you and your focus.

The short story is a bit like:

Free your view – free your inspiration!

So, the general aim is to find a solution that is as “free” as possible, while also making you feel safe, in charge and focused.

Here’s how to place your desk

As you know, all rooms are different, people are different – not to mention the desks! So, try these out and see what works and feels best for you.

With no further ado – here we go!

1 – By the window

• A great starting point is to see if the desk can be placed 90 degrees from the window. That means you’ll have the window on your left or right side, and the desk will be “free” with nothing in front of it. This is the solution most people tend to enjoy when trying it out.
• Placing the desk completely facing the window is something that most people find a little “too much”. It’s almost like sitting in front of another screen – never mind how lovely the view might be. And in fact, that can take focus from what you’re actually here to do; namely, work!
• Another reason for not blocking the window completely with a desk, or something else for that matter, is that you easily can reach it if you want to open it, or if you just want to stand there and gaze at the view during your coffee break.

2 – See the door

• Usually it feels very good to be able to see the door – and usually, it does not feel good to have your back against the door. Some people that I’ve worked with who used to sit with their back to the door, and had no feeling of that it bothered them, moved the desk around so they could see the door, and they felt like “ahhhhh, THIS feels great!”.
• Anyhow, sitting straight in front of and facing the door opening, tend to feel too exposed, too distracting and sometimes even like a vulnerable position.

3 – Open view

• If possible, it’s also a good idea to avoid placing the desk so you end up staring at a wall. Doing that can make you feel blocked and stuck. If you instead place your desk so you’ll have an open and free view in front of you, it usually feels more, well – open and free (duh!) which really can affect your creativity and inspiration. Yes, really!

4 – Something solid behind

•  It often also feels very good to have either a wall behind you, a bookshelf, a cabinet or something else very solid. It’s like having support from behind – good huh?!
• The second benefit from this, if it’s a shelf or cabinet or some kind of storage, is that you super handy will have stuff you need close by. If you want your binders or other office supplies, you just turn around and – voilà! – you have it all there.

A little end note

Some of these suggestions you might already be doing – both the recommended ones and the not so recommended ones.

Sometimes though, we need to really try something out in order to feel the difference. Maybe you today have your desk up against the wall and are thinking, “well, that works just fine for me”.
And maybe it does.

But it can also be that if you try another solution, you’ll get the “aha”-feeling.
It could be worth a tryout.

You might also realize that you can’t follow these guidelines to a T, even if you want to, due to the layout of the room.

For example; if you place the desk by the window, you might end up sitting opposite the door.
Or the room is too small to have the desk straight out from the window, so you just have to tuck it up against the wall. No worries – find a solution that works in your room, try it out and notice what feels best for you.

So let’s get going!

Use your biceps (or someone else’s!), be careful with your back (or, again, someone else’s!) – and move around that desk!

Over to you!

• When you’ve tried something out, come back to the comments and tell me what worked and what didn’t.
• Do you have any other thoughts, questions or concerns about your workspace?

Share in the comments below, I’d be so happy to hear from you!

And if you have any questions – ask away below too. Your question might help somebody else, and I’m happy to answer! And, of course, there is no such thing as a stupid question – but you know that already, right?☺️

I look forward to hearing from you!

Thanks for reading!
And thanks for leaving your comment and thoughts in English
– doing that will allow more of us to be able to read it.
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Are you in workspace makeover mode?

Then you might want to check out these posts too:

• Workspace makeover #1! – Get a radical restart
• Workspace makeover #3! – Picture your success
• Workspace makeover #4! – Flower power on duty

Photo by Pierre Leverrier on Unsplash