Messy desks? Eh, don’t sweat it
June 15, 2007 by Tris Hussey
Filed under Jobs
Eric Eggertson took up my challenge for topics and gave me a ton of topic ideas. Being in a “not do things in order” mood, I’m going to start with #4:
4) Clean desk vs. messy desk. I saw a photo of Al Gore’s messy desk today in my travels. Compare that to some neat freak’s desk, and present the argument for and against a clean desk. Source: Audience participation time here–what do you want to read about here?
My desk (room as a kid or in the dorm) has always been a mess. It’s just they way I am. I had a boss once who held the “cluttered desk, cluttered mind” philosophy. I don’t know if that’s true, but I think you need to be comfortable in your work space. I think Al Gore and I are cut from the same cloth, we work on the “pile system”. As long as you don’t mess with the piles we know where stuff is (generally).
Is one system better, though? I know that while I might try to keep a clean desk, I just can’t. It reverts into chaos naturally. Maybe I like being surrounded by stuff.
Personally I think it’s part of being a tad ADD and such. Disorder is just how I live. My mind flies in so many directions that I like to have lots of stuff at my finger tips. You never know when you might need that whatever. So what about you?
This is a great post. I emailed it to my husband, who tends to thrive in piles. Piles make me crazy. I will say that I have had messy desk before, but it usually means, I need to stop and regroup. It is a signal for me to slow down and get organized. I do much better in what I call “organized chaos”. I believe I coined this phrase, though others may use it.
Your poll should have one more category – clean to messy and back again. That is closer to true for me.
Thanks Darlene … I’ve added that answer for you!
I like things being organized, but my desktop migrates to a chaotic state fairly quickly.
Sometimes my approach bites me in the butt (like when I’m trying to track down a piece of paper from someone who hasn’t heard of sending digital copies).