LinkedIn, the business networking site, recently posted a item about desks "where big ideas are born." http://linkd.in/UAmhTl

 

There is Richard Branson, the flamboyant founder of Virgin Airlines, sitting on a beach in the deck chair that constitutes his office, iced tea in hand, surrounded by colleagues for a staff meeting. Arianna Huffington, editor of the Huffington Post, sits at a desk (actually a table) piled with books, in an office piled with books that's a sort of fishbowl in the middle of the newsroom. Steve Rubel of EVP/Global Strategy has a desk "so empty some think it's vacant."

 

Each claims to have the desk that works for them, and at that level, they should. But most of us who try to eke out a space at home for "desk work" have to make do, fending off it becoming a place for homework to be dumped, laundry to be piled, projects to be begun -- in short, to be used as almost any flat space in a home gets used.

 

Part of the challenge often is space. Do we have room to dedicate to a desk that may or may not be used every day? And really, a space just to corral the mail, pay bills, make grocery lists? This is digital world, baby - we can do that anywhere!

 

But the bigwigs who shared their desk spaces with LinkedIn often came back to an underlying benefit of taking time to make your desk space the best ever: A good desk inspires better thinking, better ideas, better organization.

 

I've been noodling how to carve out a better desk for myself at home - something better than the telephone counter that's served us for, well, years. So I was intrigued by the ideas on this site, www.decoist.com. (Type "home desk" into the search field.

 

DIY is the byword here, with desks inspired by basic materials -- including stunner made from recycled books in a library! Large or small, they are driven bythe idea that a highly personalized space drives you - the personalizer - to better things.


Nothing groundbreaking, in some ways, yet I recognized in myself a tendency to have a desk that's task-oriented instead of user-friendly. It's a subtle distinction, but crucial, for if you're not happy in your work space, those tasks may perhaps be done less well and - my own challenge -- will take longer because I'll procrastinate about sitting down to do them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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