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There’s magic in mess: Why you should embrace a disorderly desk

timharford.com

11–20 of 95 posts

Re: There’s magic in mess: Why you should embrace a disorderly desk

#11
I've been using the Super Organised Method and didn't know it. Though not with papers (so much). I use it with clothes, books, and digital content like apps on my phone.

  To most of us, it may seem obvious that piling is
  dysfunctional while filing is the act of a serious
  professional. Yet when researchers from the office
  design company Herman Miller looked at high-performing
  office workers, they found that they tended to be
  pilers. They let documents accumulate on their desks,
  used their physical presence as a reminder to do work,
  and relied on subtle cues — physical alignment, dog-
  ears, or a stray Post-it note — to orient themselves.
Filing requires cognitive effort. How do I categorise this email (tags, in Gmail, were wonderful for solving this)? How do I file this contact (circles, another good idea)? Metadata is more practical, ultimately, than creating a hierarchical category system that is simultaneously too precise and not precise enough. Simple categories like "work", "home", "school" can work to effectively divide my content. But what happens when work is paying for school? I need a letter from the school to send to HR for reimbursement (that email gets tagged as: reimbursement, school, work, tuition; a search in any of the related folders will find it).

Removing the cognitive load of precise classification, using the physical space for physical items or multi-dimensional tag system for digital items, allows you to focus on the work itself and not on the items that make up the work.

If you really need a filing system, hire a librarian.

Re: There’s magic in mess: Why you should embrace a disorderly desk

#12

I've found the easiest stuff to organize is the stuff I no longer have. I used to feel obligated to file a lot of stuff that came in the mail, like addendums to insurance policies, annual reports for stocks or funds, credit card statements, etc. But it dawned on me long ago that I virtually never need to refer back to that stuff. So it goes straight into the trash. When the bookshelves in my office fill up, I cull th…

I don't think I have ever thrown away a book. Some day, I hope to have one of those Victorian style libraries with a rolling staircase to house all of my books...

Re: There’s magic in mess: Why you should embrace a disorderly desk

#13
post #6

I've found the easiest stuff to organize is the stuff I no longer have. I used to feel obligated to file a lot of stuff that came in the mail, like addendums to insurance policies, annual reports for stocks or funds, credit card statements, etc. But it dawned on me long ago that I virtually never need to refer back to that stuff. So it goes straight into the trash. When the bookshelves in my office fill up, I cull th…

I usually take a photo of documents that there's a small chance I would need in the future. This way, they take up a very small amount of space on my phone but in case I need something again the photo will usually be sufficient and I can search by date to find it.

I do something similar: put in a pile and about once a month I scan the pile (I bought a printer with a paper-feed just for this), upload it to cloud storage, and date it.

Re: There’s magic in mess: Why you should embrace a disorderly desk

#14
In 2011, Whittaker and colleagues published a research paper with the title “Am I Wasting My Time Organizing Email?”. The answer is: yes, you are. People who use the search function find their email more quickly than those who click through carefully constructed systems of folders.

I used to organize email into folders meticulously, later using tags and rules. What a complete waste of time. These days I refuse to spend even a second organizing email or reducing my inbox, as I can summon any email even from years ago in a few seconds with fuzzy search terms. Here's another heresy I'm testing that I think may turn out to be true: Spending any effort whatsoever organizing files on your computer is equally worthless.

Re: There’s magic in mess: Why you should embrace a disorderly desk

#15
post #12

I've found the easiest stuff to organize is the stuff I no longer have. I used to feel obligated to file a lot of stuff that came in the mail, like addendums to insurance policies, annual reports for stocks or funds, credit card statements, etc. But it dawned on me long ago that I virtually never need to refer back to that stuff. So it goes straight into the trash. When the bookshelves in my office fill up, I cull th…

I don't think I have ever thrown away a book. Some day, I hope to have one of those Victorian style libraries with a rolling staircase to house all of my books...

I read that as "spiral staircase", and now I want to figure out how to build a Archimedes-screw-like rotating spiral staircase that also doubles as a bookshelf.

Re: There’s magic in mess: Why you should embrace a disorderly desk

#16
post #8

A friend of mine described work in the planning dept for major manufacturer. On the shop floor where equipment, parts shelves, tools all belonged were outlined in tape. This would show if something was out of place and keep the floor orderly. However at his desk he was also required to outline everything in tape. His stapler, keyboard, mousepad, laptop, wires running across were all outlined on the desk in tape. They…

This sort of thing is typical in manufacturing environments. It's often called 5S -- sort", "set in order", "shine", "standardize", and "sustain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5S_%28methodology%29

And 5S is stellar in a production or manufacturing environment. Great in labs, too. It shines when physical products and processes are the primary purpose of an area.

It absolutely sucks when it's applied to the physical space of an office (well, overly) where information is the purpose. A digital 5S needs to be developed, the physical one is mostly irrelevant.

Re: There’s magic in mess: Why you should embrace a disorderly desk

#17
post #3

Interesting. A messy desk (i.e. anything that doesn't just have my laptop and notebook on it) really bothers me and makes it hard to focus.

You wouldn't like my desk (actually 2 desks) at work - I have a pile of stuff that includes, on casual inspection: a Microsoft Surface (half buried), 2 sets of earphones, a fleece hat that has been there since last winter, my wallet, some maps, tattered flip chart pages, notebooks, a good 2" of documents in various stages of decomposition (used for scribbling on rather than reading), half destroyed vendor anti-stress toys, a barcode scanner and stand....

And my actual work monitors, keyboard and mouse on a relatively tidy area.

Re: There’s magic in mess: Why you should embrace a disorderly desk

#18
This post is derived from his latest book, Messy. I haven't read it, but it looks interesting. The other day there was another article also based on the book that I thought was good (on problems with automation):

Crash: how computers are setting us up for disaster https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/11/crash-how...

Re: There’s magic in mess: Why you should embrace a disorderly desk

#19
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I have ever thrown away a book. Some day, I hope to have one of those Victorian style libraries with a rolling staircase to house all of my books...

I read that as "spiral staircase", and now I want to figure out how to build a Archimedes-screw-like rotating spiral staircase that also doubles as a bookshelf.

That could be absolutely gorgeous. A couple options that pop into my head. A column in the center which contains a number of shelves, and so the books. But also, you could have the books stored in the steps themselves. The space under the steps is hollow, so turn that into shelves. The height of the books would be an issue, but paperbacks would do well, I think.
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