(ARA) - Flustered with your files? Digging for your desktop? Getting organized for spring doesn’t have to be a chore, and spending a little time to spruce up your office can have great rewards.

According to Stephanie Winston, New York Times best-selling author of “Getting Organized,” disorganization has never been more costly for business. "An employee who loses one hour per day to disorder costs the company more than 10 percent of his/her annual salary,” said Winston.

The five-day get organized guide designed by Winston and Office Depot provides simple solutions for maintaining an orderly workspace – in just 30 minutes a day. Highlights include:

* Toss It – A natural part of getting organized is tossing unneeded papers. But in today’s environment, where identity theft is prevalent, protecting your information is more important than ever. Winston recommends using a shredder to ensure that confidential documents, personal papers and financial information do not fall into the wrong hands. She likes the Ativa diamond-cut shredder because it shreds documents, credit cards and CDs into tiny, unusable pieces that are smaller than the typical shredder outputs, and starts at $29.99.

* Create a Master To-Do List – Winston suggests creating a centralized, master to-do list each week, from which you can pull 10 to12 daily tasks. Carry your list with you in a convenient organizer at all times so that action items can be easily added and crossed off upon completion. Winston recommends either a PDA, particularly the Palm TX Wireless PDA, or a paper-based organizer, such as a FranklinCovey planner. The FranklinCovey line ranges in price from $14.99 to more than $119.

* Organize Your Files to Increase Productivity – Many people create file names that make sense at the time, but do not come to mind easily when they need to retrieve the folder. To avoid this from happening to you, Winston suggests creating broad file names versus very specific titles. You will find it infinitely easier to locate what you are looking for if you create a master hanging folder with a general name that contains manila folders with more detailed names. For example, if “acquisition targets” is the general title, then each manila folder is labeled with the individual company names. Winston suggests using the same approach to organize your electronic files, too. File folders, available in assorted colors and styles, start at $5.89.

These and other suggestions come from The Office Depot Five-Day Office Makeover Plan, which is available free of charge at http://www.officedepot.com/getorganized.

Courtesy of ARA Content.