Lower Stress Level – Being able to find what you need quickly and easily is one of the biggest advantages of the organized home/office.  Do you know where everything is?  Can you find it in 2 minutes or less?  Being organized does not mean being perfect, it means being able to find what you need when you need it.  If you start to panic when a co-worker, spouse or child asks you for a document, you will benefit greatly from taking time to get organized. Stress causes many health issues, and has been linked to several serious diseases.   Clutter is a known cause of stress.  This stress is caused by being surrounded with too much stimuli.  When you are surrounded by too many visual things, you feel overwhelmed and like there is to much to do.  The clutter also causes anxiety, because you do not know what it is in “that stack”.  When you clear the clutter, and organize your office you lower your stress.

Increased Productivity – You are so much more productive when you are organized, because you can focus better with a clear desk.   The clutter and paper piles are distractions.  These distractions cause a loss of focus, and this is what negatively affects our productivity.

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More Time – How much time are you wasting looking for misplaced items?  How much time do you waste waiting for your computer to search through endless files and emails for the one thing you need?  The time you take now to organize and purge papers and clutter, will be given back to you multiple times.  According to a recent survey conducted by the Wall Street Journal, “The average U.S. executive wastes six weeks per year searching for missing information in messy desks and files.”  The Gartner Group estimated “the average professional would waste 30 percent to 40 percent of his time on ”document-related non-value-added tasks,” i.e., paper shuffling. Now some of that wasted time has moved from paper to electronics…”

Increased focus on your priorities – Once your office or home is organized, you will be able to increase your focus on your goals.  This stems from writing down your action items as you are going through your electronic and paper information.  This can really help you align your action items with your goals.