What stays on the desk

A desk gets loud when every tool stays on top of it. A working setup is smaller: one notebook open, one pen already uncapped, a lamp, and a tray for the clips.

Everything else lives in a drawer or a case. The point is not minimalism as a style. It is a surface that does not ask you to tidy before you can start.

If you are setting one up this week, begin with the notebook you already finish. Then match the pen to that paper, not the other way around.