5 Internship Desk Must Haves

Helloooo! Today's post has been requested a few times so I'm so excited to finally get around to posting this! What took me so long to post it was that I'm currently in a temporary position so I haven't really decorated my desk a whole lot, plus my desk area isn't all that huge so even if I wanted to, I wouldn't have much room to put stuff even if I wanted to. I'll save a "what's on my desk" post for once I do get a job and have a desk, and today's post is just about 5 basic things that belong on any desk.

And as an intern, you should be cautious decorating your desk in general, because you are just temporary so you don't wan't to waste your time/money practically moving in for only a few weeks. Just use your best judgment once you get the feel of your office!

Related: How to set up your desk for school

Notebook

I’ve mentioned it before but it’s worth mentioning again, as an intern you are going to want and need a notebook! I take notes on all of my assignments as they’re being assigned to me, and then will keep my notebook within reach on my desk at all times. I reference it every single time before I turn in an assignment to make sure that I did everything that was asked of me and didn’t get any details confused. And when I get asked to tag along in a meeting, it’s always the first thing I grab for before heading off.

To-do pad

One Friday, no lie I received like 8 different assignments within 30 minutes! I instantly felt so overwhelmed even though most of the assignments were fairly easy, just because I didn’t know where to start. So now every morning I take a look at what assignments I have going on, and use those to make a daily to-do list. I make mine very detailed so I don’t forget anything— one assignment might have 10 different to-do boxes just because I’ll have email so-and-so about this; meet with boss about this; look up this on WestLaw; add changes so-and-so sent yesterday; CC paralegal on email; send final copy to so-and-so. Every step gets its own box and it really helps me stay on top of everything. I’ll also make a note of when I send people emails so then I’ll know to follow up with them in a week or two if they forget to reply to me, just so I don’t drop the ball and forget to finish an assignment.

Badge lanyard

At every single job I’ve had since coming to law school (both government and corporate), I’ve had to have a badge. So my guess is, most of you will probably have to have a badge. Usually the badges have some kind of clip on them, but if you don’t have pockets it can be uncomfortable to clip right on your waistband and if you wear a dress you’ll have nowhere to clip it to. The first time I wore a dress at my internship I just left my badge on my desk but then totally forgot about it when I went to a meeting and got locked out after going to the bathroom! So now I have a trusty badge lanyard that I wear most days just because I never want to get locked out again.

Water bottle

Is it weird that I have a “work water bottle?” Because I totally do! One day I forgot to bring it and I was dyyyying that whole day because I had to get up every 5 minutes to refill my little Styrofoam cup that I grabbed from the breakroom. And then I realized just how much easier life is without having to haul your water bottle to and from work every day. Since I only use it for water, all I have to do is rinse it out and clean the mouth piece and then it’s good to go every day. Plus if you carry around the same water bottle all day, every day then people will start to know it as “your drink” and can bring it by your desk if you set it down and forget it somewhere 😊

Minimergency kit

I took my minimergency kit out of my backpack and brought it to my desk when I first got to my internship! I love having it on my desk because nothing makes you notice something wrong with your nail quite like reading a contract 😂. For real though, I will end up filing my nail at least once a week with the mini emery board in there. And the sewing kit gives me this huge peace of mind to know that if I were to have a button fall off or something, I could quickly run to the bathroom and actually fix it instead of looking dumb all day. Basically anything you might need is probably in here!

That’s basically the few items on my desk that I would be seriously upset if I didn’t have one day. You’ll notice that all of these things are small because as an intern you actually won’t need that much. The smallness is also handy because that means they can all fit in your purse on your first day so you can have everything you need on day one without having to bring a box full of your crap or something.

Related: What's in my work bag

Hope everyone enjoys St. Patrick’s this weekend! I took a three day weekend and am going to the Houston Rodeo since I don’t technically have a spring break (ugh the real world). For those of you still on spring break, enjoy it for me!

let's be friends!

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