You’re having a great morning. You woke up feeling refreshed, drank your favorite cup of coffee, read the newspaper and you even had an easy drive to work with minimal traffic. You’re going up the elevator, talking to your coworkers and then you round the corner to your cubicle. You’re instantly hit with a wave of anxiety.

Your cubicle is a disaster! There are papers everywhere, some that are very important and others that should have been thrown out weeks ago. You have folders and files scattered all over and something is hanging out of the top drawer of your filing cabinet so you can’t even close it. You need to get yourself organized! Here are some tips and tricks to make your work space organized and stop causing anxiety attacks.

Buy a Dry Erase/Cork Board

You can stop at any local office supply store and buy a board that has both a dry erase side and a cork side. This will allow you to write a reminder to yourself about a meeting that’s been moved or tack up an important piece of paper that needs to be faxed. Buying the 2-in-1 will allow you to get use out of both portions without taking up too much of an already small space.

Buy Wall File Organizer

Something else to hang up on your wall, but it will save you so much desk space. If you only keep the most important and urgent files in this hanging rack, you will save that amount of space on your desk.

Put Away Projects that Do Not Require Your Immediate Attention

It’s important to keep your desk clear of the clutter that is causing all that anxiety. Putting away projects that are finished or proposals that are not due for months will limit the amount of things on your desk and allow you to work on what needs to be done today, this week or this month.

Avoid Bringing Home to Work with You

When you’re at work, make sure the only paperwork that is there is for work. Avoid bringing bills, school permission slips or magazines that will undoubtedly take up more space than you can manage.

Buying a Desk or a Drawer Organizer

Buying an organizer can help in a big way. Putting all your office supplies that would normally be freely roaming your desk into a single location will help them take up the smallest amount of space possible.

Limit Personal Items

While having a photo of your spouse, children or family pet is great, aim to avoid having too many reminders of home. This can cause your attention to wander to other ideas that are not work-related, leaving you with more things to do than you have time for in a day.

Make BOTH Desktops Organized

It can be just as overwhelming if your computer desktop is overloaded with icons of web browsers, documents, spreadsheets, client project proposals, etc. You should limit the items on your desktop home screen to the necessary ones that are used very frequently. Everything else should be sorted into files that are not directly in front of your face at all times.

Weekly Cleaning Schedule

Set aside time every week, perhaps the end of your day on Friday or in the middle of a slow day on Wednesday, whatever works best for you. Take 20 minutes and organize your desk, your files, paperwork, etc. Make it a routine.

Keeping your cubicle clean can make your life at work much less stressful. You will always be on top of your projects and assignments, impressing your boss and working your way right out of that cubicle and into your own office space!