I'm settling in a new office and except the obvious (PC, screen, mouse, keyboard) and the can't-work-without earphones, tissue box, Philips screwdriver and stack (overflow?) of papers my table looks poor, empty and not functional.
Which tools of the trade do you keep in your desk? What proves useful to keep within an arm's reach?
An external hard drive dock always comes along handy. Such as this one.
I always keep one of my own business cards on my desk because I can never seem to remember my own work phone number when I'm on the phone with someone who needs it.
--
bmb
And my coffee mug
I have the cables necessary to setup and work on a second PC ... monitor, keyboard and mouse, power cable plugged in, ethernet cable plugged in. That way, when I am in a hurry to fix a problem I can plug the PC and go.
One sixth of my 3'x8' desk surface is occupied by a folded blanket that is usually occupied by a big, fat, white cat. There's something incredibly calming about this animal who has no cares except eating and getting his ears scratched. Very calming.
Those things should be easely reache :
Books like the below. Aside from my computer I find that nothing is as helpful has having books to be able grab and open. My books of course have lots of the Post-It Flags marking important sections. When the network is down, firing up Google or Safari isn't an option, and I am not able to remember everything.
I also have:
moleskine notebook
Ball of whacks
pencils, keyboard and mouse
...and sometimes m&ms.
Pumpkin seeds, peanuts, sunflower seeds, whichever, must have the the 1500 hour snack on hand to keep my head from diving into my keyboard