Tricking out the Desk

I spent a good chunk of my summer giving people access to information and protecting privacy for the City of Ottawa. This as it happens is a fine way to spend a summer, especially because you get to work with some fine people who truly believe in what they are doing. And me, I don't mind desk jobs. Especially if I can make my desk into my own mission control. Here are the things I did that made my desk more pleasant for me:

1. Attached two boxes of binder clips to the wall, so I could always grab one of any size I wanted. (Binder clips: paper clips for grown-ups.)
2. Attached all three sizes of cover-up tape to a string of elastics hanging from my credenza, so I never had to root around for cover-up tape. (When you're protecting privacy, you use a lot of cover-up tape.)
3. My favourite: Removed the cover for an unused electric cable hole on the desk and put my wastebasket directly below it. Put tape on the floor with markings so I knew where to put the wastebasket after the cleaners emptied it. Bits of trash, staples, etc. could just be swept into the hole.