Give the Gift of Productivity with These Work Organization Tools

Whether it's for a co-worker, family member, or friend, the gift of productivity and organization can last for years. While tools for working better may not seem like the most fun holiday surprise, they can make a positive difference in a day at the office. Give the gift of productivity this year with these awesome workspace organization tools.

Cable Management

It's tough to be productive at work when you've got cables running everywhere. Here are a few great stocking stuffers that can help anyone wrangle their cords with ease.

Cable Drops and Cordlets

Cable Drops are little adhesive half-spheres with a slot for a cable. You can stick them pretty much anywhere and hold your cables exactly where you want them. They come in all kinds of colors so you can match them to your workspace or add a little color. While a six pack retails for $10, you can often find these little wranglers for as much as half the cost. Cordlets have a similar function but also provide a space to wrap cables if you need to shorten them. While slightly more expensive than a cable drop, the extra functionality becomes very helpful when lengthy cables run tangled all over the office.

Read the original post (Cordlets).

Buy Cable Drops in black, white, and multiple colors ($5-10 for a 6-pack) and Buy Cordlets ($10 for a 4-pack)

IKEA SIGNUM

IKEA's SIGNUM cable management solution screws into the underside of just about any desk and provides a central location to wrap and manage cables. It's easy to install, costs only $10, and provides one of the simplest ways to get cables under control in a matter of minutes.

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Buy IKEA SIGNUM ($10)

The Plug Hub

Managing cables near your disk is easy enough if you've got something like the IKEA SIGNUM mentioned above, but you can still end up with a mess by your surge protector. The Plug Hub combines you with a strip of surge-safe power and a box to wrap cables so you don't end up with an awful, tangled mess.

Buy The Plug Hub ($25)

Workspace Organization

A messy workspace is often a less-productive one, but a few inexpensive tools can fix that. Whether it means adding organization to a filing cabinet, storing stuff on the wall, or just keeping things tidy in general, these tools make the job much easier.

Hanging Drawer Organizers

When we don't have time to organize, we often shove all our stuff in a drawer. This makes for an annoying mess we eventually have to sort through later just to find a sticky note or binder clip. If you know someone who likes to stockpile a mess in their drawers, help them keep it neat and tidy with a hanging drawer organizer. They can still use their filing cabinet for files while keeping everything clean and accessible.

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Buy Rubbermaid Hanging Drawer Organizer ($8.68)

WhiteyBoard
When someone needs a dry erase board but doesn't have the room (or the desire to hang one on their wall), get them WhiteyBoard. They can either buy easily removable stick-on dry erase squares to put a whiteboard practically anywhere, or just get dry erase paint to turn any wall into a writing surface. Little WhiteyBoard notes are great if you just need to add erasable notes to a door or a wall. Personally, I use on on the dishwasher to mark if the dishes are clean or dirty. There are many possibilities and they make for a fun, simple work tool.

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Buy Whiteyboard ($2.69 - $150)

MacHook

MacHook is a clever little product that curves to the form of your Mac's display, whether that be an external monitor or an iMac. You just set it on top and "nano-suction technology" holds it in place, then hang your headphones on the little hook that protrudes from the side. If you know a music lover whose desk is often in disarray due to their high-quality cans, this little tool can solve the problem with style.

Read the original post.

Buy MacHook ($15)

Backpack 2

If you know an iMac owner, you can help them organize their peripherals by adding a nice little metal shelf to the back of their Mac. The Backpack 2 can hold hard drives, audio interfaces, and even a laptop (for those using an iMac or Cinema Display as a monitor). It mounts not only in the back but in the front as well if you need easy access to anything on the shelf.

Read the original post.

Buy BackPack 2 ($35)

Idea Organization and Productivity Boosters

Organizing ideas makes for a productive office, too, and there are several awesome tools for the job.

Moleskine Evernote Smart Notebook

Not all notes are digital by nature, but we often wish we could write in a notebook and see our notes magically appear on the computer. One of the easiest ways to do that is wither Evernote and a smartphone camera. Evernote can snap images of notes from any notebook, but their official Moleskine version comes with stickers for automatic tagging and a grid to help straighten out the page after it's photographed. While about twice the cost of a standard Moleskine, the Evernote version earns its price tag by providing three months of premium Evernote service. If you want to give the gift of a nice notebook and Evernote in one package, this is the way to go.

Thanks for the suggestion, chiiedy!

Read the original post.

Buy Moleskine Evernote Smart Notebook ($30)

LiveScribe Smartpen

Photos aren't the only way to make your notes digital. If you give the gift of a LiveScribe Smartpen, the recipient only has to write their notes down and plug their pen into the computer. From there it can sync notes directly to the computer, making it a great gift for students, meeting notetakers, or anyone who simply likes to write by hand.

Buy LiveScribe Echo 4GB Smartpen ($100)

Fujitsu ScanSnap or Doxie Portable Scanner

Getting rid of stacks of paper and going digital is one of the best gifts you can give. Both the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i and the Doxie mobile scanner make paper scanning easy while leaving a tiny footprint on your desk. Both are mobile, and Doxie integrates with several cloud services like Evernote.

Thanks for the suggestion, LuckySponge!

Read the original post (ScanSnap).

Buy Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i ($261) and Doxie ($139)

A special thanks goes out to everyone who provided suggestions last week! It made putting together these guides a lot easier, and a better fit for you.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/hfR31WBJ7q4/give-the-gift-of-productivity-with-these-work-organization-tools

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