Blaming poor professional performance on a shoddy desk environment is a bit like the workman blaming his tools. But on the other hand, a well-kept desk both reflects and encourages a tidy mind.

If you think of your desk as just a place you sit to do work, it’ll likely pile high with all kinds of mess and distractions that will hamper your productivity. Taking a few moments now and then to tidy your work area and re-consider the stuff that you keep to hand can help you to shape a healthy, strategic mindset.

Just take the desks of the high achievers and respected businesspeople of this new set of desk replicas. The illustrators have shown at a glance how some of the most successful people around us have shaped their environment to facilitate better thinking and better working. It’s a great resource if you’re thinking about revamping your office desk.

Mark Zuckerberg, for example, may be on dubious moral territory with his data-grabbing, election-influencing behemoth of a social media platform, but there’s surely something in the fact that he keeps his desk like the captain of a science-fiction spaceship:

• It’s labeled ‘Zuck-1’, a humorous way to remind his colleagues that despite the casual office-wear, the Facebook kingpin is steering the ship.
• A stuffed Facebook ‘privacy dinosaur’ to add a human, down-to-Earth touchstone.
• A model of the satellite intended to bring Wi-Fi to Africa, to keep his mind on the mission.

What do the objects on your desk represent? Is there anything missing that would make your work life more meaningful?