Stress is quickly becoming an epidemic in North America. Conditions like high blood pressure, allergies, migraines, ulcers, skin problems, and more have all been related to stress. That's not to mention the fact that stress has been linked to all the leading causes of death, including heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, and accidents.

The start of each day is the time to feel fresh and confident in your ability to make progress on your daily tasks. This feeling of purpose comes easily with an organized workspace. Disorganization, on the other hand, washes all good intentions away in confusion and stress, and sets the tone for the rest of the workday.

Then, we must address the electronic chaos. Spam assassin’s aren’t diffusing all of the spam anymore, the convenience of networking has created duplicates in local folders and network folders, stored documents on CD are almost impossible to retrieve and dare we enter the gloom of contact lists, e-mails and the "convenience" of archiving.

With all this in mind, now, more than ever, is the time to protect your health and business by conquering this chaos. Getting organized is one giant leap toward dealing with stress effectively.

Know your priorities and then schedule time for those tasks in your calendar. You don’t have to complete your list in one day, just focus your energy on what matters most and work your way down. Here are a few tips for reducing stress through organization.

How to Tackle Paper Clutter

1. Take all of the paper piles you have on your desk, counter or table and place it in a box.

2. Pick up the first piece of paper and apply what I refer to as the FAST method: ask yourself if you are going to File, Act, Schedule or Toss this piece of paper? If it’s file, then write trigger word(s) in the top right hand corner of the paper. Put it in a pile called "File." If you need to take action, write out all the action steps on the top right corner of the paper or use a post-it-note and put it in a pile labeled "Action." If you need to schedule this into your calendar then write it into your calendar and toss the paper. When you’ve sorted the entire box you should have three piles: File, Act, Schedule and I’ll assume that your wastebasket is overflowing!

3. Once sorted, start with the action pile and begin to handle each piece of paper— filing it in your action files or scheduling the next action into your calendar. You can also use the "Tickler" system—putting the papers in folders with labeled dates to "tickle" your memory—to file these into on the day you plan to take action.

How to Tackle Digital Clutter

Fortunately, there's a lot you can do to take charge of your computer and abolish all electronic disorganization this month. To start, block off at least an hour in your day planner before taking the following steps.

1. Review your computer files/documents and make a backup of all the documents that you know you will not refer to again (such as draft documents that have now been completed, files with out-of-date information or duplicate information in different file locations). Once a backup has been created, delete all of these electronic files.

2. Remove any programs that you don't use. To do so on a PC, select "Start/Control Panel/Add or Remove Programs." Simply highlight the unused programs and click "remove".

3. Run ScanDisk weekly (this will fix any errors that may exist within the hard drive—here's how) and create a backup.

4. Make space in Internet Explorer by removing temporary files. To do so, go to "Tools/Internet Options/Temporary Internet Files" and click "Delete Files."Say "yes" to "Delete all offline content."

5. Take a few minutes to organize your files within your e-mail program. Create these additional files: action; read; waiting for a response; and templates. Each morning, delete unnecessary e-mails (spam/junk), respond to any e-mail that will only take two minutes or less to respond to, then move all other e-mails to their designated files, leaving a completely empty inbox. Then schedule time each day to deal with those e-mails.

6. Use only one calendar, either electronic or paper. A good idea is to use an electronic calendar that can be easily synced with a handheld electronic organizer, such as a smartphone, on a daily basis.

Whatever you do to conquer your chaos around the office or home, don't over schedule. Delegate tasks when appropriate—you don't have to do everything. Leave time free in your calendar for the unexpected and perhaps for a break now and then.

Sherry Borsheim is the founder of Simply Productive, is an international organization expert, and has appeared on national media including HGTV. Sherry is an author and sought-after speaker who loves helping busy professionals, business owners and moms organize their chaos at home, at work and in their life.  Sherry believes there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to getting organized and that your organizing systems need to work for you and the people in your life. Contact Sherry to get organized today at www.simplyproductive.com.