Nowadays you need more from you desk than just a flat surface to work on, so read on and you will learn what you can do and how it can improve your life, if you’ve got a spare plug socket or two.

After you have taken our advice on board, and acted on it, you will wonder how you ever got on without your power buddies.

First on the list is getting power and data onto the top of the desk. Scrabbling about underneath it for a socket to plug your phone into can be easily avoided, and the same goes with data. Simple electric modules which clamp onto the desk top, can give you whatever you want, where you want

Power, data, telephone are standard requirements but what about a USB port directly linked to your CPU. In fact any port which you can find on the back of your CPU can be replicated on the face of the electric module. You just plug in all the fly leads and away you go. No tangled wires, no clambering around under the desk, just sit down and plug in.

A nicely finished aluminium desktop module starts at around £35 for a 2 gang power socket, rising up to around £65 if you want to add a telephone and date socket.

These prices include all the fly leads and clamps to get the whole job done. If you want to add a sound jack, USB socket, VGA socket of similar you need budget for around £30 per additional item.
It may seem expensive if you go for all of the options but for the difference it will make to you life it will be worth it.

If you don’t want a module clamped on the desk, you can get a flush fitting one which fits into a rectangular hole you cut in the desk. More work admittedly but you can close the lid whether you are connected or not, and the design is quite sleek. This type of unit is especially good in dual purpose rooms such as home studies, where you share the space with your kids.

Another version of this theme is a pop up module where the unit, unsurprisingly, pops up through a circular hole cut in the work top. Again more work, but definitely much tidier and sleeker.

So having got power and data to your desk, you now need to think about mounting your monitor on a flexible arm. This gives you more desk space and allows you to find the correct position for you monitor. And you should think about others who may also use the monitor. Some of these arms have 2 or even 3 universal joints, which does increase the cost, but range of movement they offer is remarkable. You can get cheaper arms which will do a reasonable job, but they won’t look as stylish as some of the extruded aluminium ones which are available.

We have already assumed that you CPU is suspended under your desk, off the floor, so if this is not the case then you need to sort this as well. Moving them off the floors means it won’t be hit by your feet or the wheels on your chair, and you can tuck any excess cabling above it. And while we mention excess cabling, a simple rectangular wire basket fixed to the underside of the desk, will make a good home for this and any transformers or chargers which you may have.

And finally a couple of extra cable ports fitted into the desk top will take care of any more permanent electronic features on your desk such as telephones or speakers.

So take a bit of time to work out what you need and be prepared to spend a little money in order to get it right. You will definitely appreciate the improvement these simple measure will make