January 5th, 2009
New Year's resolution: de-crap your desk of (most) technology
My desk is a bloody mess. There’s more crap sitting where I work than Amy Winehouse’s music taste. Productivity is a word most people recoil from in utter horror; the connotation of having to sit down and “be productive” releases gasps of shock amongst the student community.
I make it my New Year’s resolution is to halve, at least, the amount of technology on my desk, to make me a faster, more efficient worker. For example, this is my desk as it is now.
(Click for a larger version of this over-cluttered mess, of which I call a “workspace”…)
As you’ll see, I’ve got myself a laptop, a keyboard and mouse (obviously), a monitor, and a digital frame with a picture of me looking out of my office window. I also have my iPod nano and a dock, a remote control for the dock, desktop speakers, my Nokia E61 in a dock, a LiveSide sticker and a bunch of Windows Live Messenger branded Post-it notes that I stole from the Microsoft UK office.
It’s ridiculous, and it drives me mad. I can barely write essays with the amount of crap I’ve got to handle.
I have watched in the last week a number of my colleagues doing strange and peculiar things as their resolutions tick over. I’ve joined my colleague Jennifer Leggio in trying to curb all emails to “Twitter or less”, but will try and keep away from Jason Perlow’s “prehistoric computing adventure”.
The challenge
Major brownie points go to anyone who can take photos of their desk, upload to ImageShack or their SkyDrive, and post the URL in the comments below. Show your shame people; take heed, de-crap your desk today!
Zack Whittaker, the youngest in the ZDNet network, is a British student at the University of Kent, Canterbury, where he studies BA (Hons) Criminology and Social Policy. His insight into the next-generation is unique and first-hand, sharing his knowledge of the here and now but more so what's next and how to get there.
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| 01/06/09
