Your Messy Desk

12/30/2013

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.
Maori Proverb

In her New York Times Magazine article, "Clean Up Your Desk!," Gretchen Reynolds presented two viewpoints on messy desks:

"...psychologists... have found that people blessed with innate conscientiousness, meaning that they are organized and predictable, typically eat better and live longer than people who are disorderly. They also tend to have immaculate offices."

However, a recent experiment at the University of Minnesota found that "...working in chaos has its advantages too.... College students were placed in a messy or a neat office and asked to dream up new uses for Ping-Pong balls. Those in messy spaces generated ideas that were significantly more creative... than those plugging away in offices where stacks of papers and other objects were neatly aligned.... 'Disorderly environments seem to inspire breaking free of tradition, which can produce fresh insights...'" concluded the researchers.

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