An organized office can reduce your stress and help you take control of your professional life.

“We can’t control a lot of things in our lives,” says Catherine Desjeunes, a professional organizer with the Witty Office in Montreal. “But if you can control your office space, that’s a pretty big step.”

Follow these tips to organize your office and stay focused:

1. Know your style
Before you can start organizing, you’ll need to decide what kind of system works best for you.

Ask yourself whether you are a visual person, Desjeunes says. If so, you will prefer to see things directly in front of you. A visual person, for example, might keep a container for pens and a sorter to hold important files on the desk.

If you’re not a visual person, Desjeunes says, you might prefer to have everything tucked away in a drawer or cabinet. In that case, you’ll need to create filing systems that make it easy to locate the items you have packed away.

2. Focus on the day-to-day
Consider what you use the most to help you decide where you should stow out of sight.

Think about all the activities you do in your office over the course of a day, Desjeunes says. The items you use daily and those that are most important to your work should be close to your desk. Items or files that you access only every few weeks or months can be kept farther away.

3. Keep related components together
File pieces of information that are related to one another in one place and always have every relevant file at your fingertips.

Whether it’s an electronic file on your computer or a paper file in a drawer, Desjeunes says, it’s important that you have all the various components of that file in one place.

As well, to make things easy to find, Desjeunes recommends colour-coding your paper files. Use a consistent name or number system, she says, to organize electronic files.

4. Use nice things
When choosing supplies for your office, make sure you pick items you like.

Aesthetically pleasing office supplies make it easier to stay organized, Desjeunes says. You will be motivated to use or maintain these items if you appreciate them.

5. Do some maintenance
Devote a little time each day to keeping your office organized and functional.

“Take 15 to 20 minutes at the end of each day,” says Desjeunes, “to prepare for the next day and to put things away.”