Sponsored Content from Bostitch Office | by Jaclyn Pelopida

We’re all guilty of making New Year’s resolutions that we inevitably never stick to. Join a gym? Then try to cancel your membership come February 1. Stop frivolous shopping? Only until you see a sale sign in a store window. Stop swearing so much? Then watch your wallet empty into the swear jar. How about we stop with the resolutions all together and just focus on what we actually NEED in the New Year. And let’s be honest, we all need to get organized after watching months of holiday clutter build up and box us in—at home and at work.

Clutter Can Cause Mess and Stress

For many people, work is considered a second home. We all strive to keep our houses clean and organized, so our work space should look the same, right? A messy desk can cause a scattered work place and a scattered brain—no one needs that! Organized, clean desks help to boost mood, morale and efficiency. According to Psychology Today, clutter distracts us, makes us unable to relax and causes frustration among many other roadblocks that stop our productivity.

Treating your desk as an organized sacred space is crucial for a healthy mind, body and soul. People with organized desks tend to be more reliable, task-oriented and better with time management. Organization is key to productivity while clutter is linked to an increase in stress, amplifying and spreading germs, distraction and it can even cause you to overeat. Can you believe a messy desk can do all that?

Not only does clutter directly affect you and your health, it can also affect your co-workers and their health by catching any germs breeding on your desk. Your co-workers may feel that you’re unapproachable if you’re buried in piles of paper or feverishly looking for something that went missing in your black hole of a desk. Forbes points to a survey conducted by Adecco that found most Americans (57 percent) admit to judging a coworker based on how clean or messy their workspaces are. Nearly half of those surveyed have been “appalled” by how messy their coworker’s office can be and blame it on the coworker’s laziness.

Cut the Juggling Act at Work

Reliable Planet reports that the average person wastes 4.3 hours per week searching for papers. That’s 4.3 hours of time that could be spent on something much more beneficial to your well-being—a longer lunch, leaving an hour early, or just getting ahead on weekly tasks. All the time spent searching through a messy desk adds frustration and stress, while also reducing creative thinking and concentration. Searching for missing information makes the average office worker lose one hour of productivity per day.

It’s easy to get caught up in the daily work grind with one meeting after the next, and then suddenly you have a pile of papers on your desk, you can’t find your pen and your missing glasses are on top of your head. Well, guess what? It’s time to stop the juggling act—we do enough juggling between our home and personal lives.

With your surrounding space featuring an overwhelming backdrop, you’ll easily begin to feel overwhelmed, too. Gain back your sense of personal control by controlling the amount of mess on your desk. Your desk is prime real estate, every inch is important—no matter the size.

By finding a place for everything on your desk—including that all-encompassing junk drawer that magically fills to the brim every month—you’ll be able to destress, declutter and literally stop juggling your work tools on your desk.

It’s time to purge your desk, clean it and keep it clean!

New Year, New You, New Desk

Are you a victim of clutter, messiness and an unorganized desk? It’s okay to raise your hand—we’re all friends here and we’re all guilty of leaving our messes “for tomorrow.”

Imagine a world where everything on your desk has a home of its own. A place where pens can be color coordinated, where staplers can stand vertically to take up less space, where essentials like tape, scissors and sticky notes all live together in a happy neighborhood. This dream is possible!

Did you know that there are systems that can help you create a fresh, organized desk where tangled cords no longer exist? Some of the best desk organizers around help you manage your desk and create your own space, your way—for your ultimate desktop destination. Start the new year off on the right (or left), organizational foot and put that messy desk behind you in 2018.

Jaclyn Pelopida is the Content Marketing Manager at Bostitch Office—the creators and engineers behind the Konnect™Workspace + Cable Organization System; the ultimate cure for desktop disaster. Jaclyn’s writing credits include M Magazine, Seventeen.com, Viacom and Trade Secrets Magazine.