Earlier this month in a Print Buyer Online.com Quick Poll survey, we asked our print buyer members “How messy is your desk?” It sounds like a silly question, I admit, but if you dig deeper, you will understand the importance of organization with the myriad projects a buyer handles on any given day. Here are the results of the survey:

• 13% of print buyers said, “Messy? Never! I’m super organized and my desk is almost always cleaned off by the end of the day.”

• 52% of print buyers said, “Somewhat cluttered. I vacillate between being super neat and being messy. (Perhaps a sign of my frame of mind?)”

• 34% of print buyers said, “Very messy, but hey, I know where everything is! Messiness doesn’t mean disorganization.”

• 1% of print buyers said, “Messy or neat — (sigh) I can never seem to find things.”

Of the 116 respondents, several used this question as a platform to provide us with some very interesting comments:

“I have found that the minute my desk becomes disorganized, I lose something of importance.”

“I can always tell when I am getting behind by the state of my desk top. When it gets too messy, it means I will be losing my weekend to catch up. What is amazing is that from the first symptom of ‘behindness’ to a lost weekend is a very short time-frame.”

“It depends on how many projects I am juggling at the time. There may be a lot on my desk - and sometimes on the floor, but I know where everything is!”

“It is much easier to start out organized then to try and become so. I try to use this rule: pick it up and either toss it, file it, or work on it.”

Neatness can also be mandated by corporate policy. Melissa Weber, a senior print buyer for HSBC shared, “Our company requires that we remove all files and project materials from our desks and lock them in our file drawers at the end of each day. This is designed to protect company information in the event of a security breach.”

Printers were more divided, with 50% saying their desks were “somewhat cluttered” and 47% stating “very messy.” Sr. VP of Sales Barry Stinson shared, “Neatniks think my desk is messy and so it appears. But I know where everything is. For me, ‘out of sight’ becomes ‘out of mind’ and that leads to problems.”

Tami Weathers, an account rep at Heritage said, “I would need to amend my answer as this: VERY messy, but hey, I can USUALLY find everything! Messiness doesn’t always mean disorganization; mostly it means I’m busy!”

We want to hear from you: What is the state of your desk—and how does it reflect your level of efficiency?