There goes one of my New Year resolutions. I have been meaning to get rid of the paper piles next to my bedside and on my work desk but it’s already two weeks into the year. Perhaps it’s not such a good idea to get rid of the mess after all. A recent book, A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder–How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and On-the-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place, argues that some mess means less stress.
The book touts two advantages of living with some mess. First, being very organized takes time. A rough storage system (important papers close to the keyboard, the rest distributed in loosely related piles on every flat surface) takes very little time to manage. Filing every bit of paper in a precise category, with color-coded index tabs and a neat system of cross-referencing, will certainly take longer.
Second, mess creates room for coincidence and serendipity. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin because he was notoriously untidy, and didn’t clean a Petri dish, thus allowing fungal spores to get to work on bacteria. He remarked wryly on visiting a colleague’s spotless lab: “no danger of mould here”.
Although I wouldn’t go as far as Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose mess-for-success tips include never making a daily schedule, I do believe in having my current reading list – books, magazines and printouts - scattered around me. I have never been good with folders. Luckily Google Desktop search has made email folders redundant. Hopefully someday a similar flat filing system would emerge for my books and papers. I guess, till then the current piles next to my bedside will have to do.
[As you would imagine there has been much discussion about the book in the blogsphere, Helen Smith, a forensic psychologist no less, agrees that being moderately organized is alright. On the other hand, Dan Markovitz just can’t see the point. He advocates a 5S (sort, store, standardize, shine, sustain) workspace. Take your pick!]
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