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

timharford.com

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

#41

Post by s_kilk »

mountaineer22 wrote: post #32
DannyB2 wrote: post #20

Some people who have what appears to be a disorganized mess, always know EXACTLY where any particular item is when it is wanted.

I wonder if some people think in 3 dimensions versus taxonomically? Combining for memory palace?

I'm probably like this.

For example, my CD/Vinyl/DVD/Book collections have never been alphabetized nor categorized, but I can find anything I want very quickly, because I seem to think spatially about the layout of the collection.

For some reason, I know instinctively that my copy of "In the Nightside Eclipse" will be on the upper left shelf while the Miles Davis records will be on the second-last shelf.

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

#42

Post by BeetleB »

douche wrote: post #12
rhapsodic wrote: post #4

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 don't think I have ever thrown away a book.

I used to be that guy. Then I got tired of hauling all that stuff every time I moved.

Now, if I can reasonably expect my library to have it, I don't keep it (unless it's a reference book I need to consult often). And when I buy new books, I prefer ebooks. They don't take up much clutter.

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

#43

Post by makecheck »

A mess in a fixed area can serve as a reminder of your mental limit. When your space is “full”, use the opportunity to take care of something and clean it up again (don’t buy more shelves or more boxes, for example). And ideally, entirely get rid of things you are not using. It’s the same with computers: you don’t want to let yourself do the digital equivalent of buying more shelves or boxes (don’t let yourself easily create even more new desktops or folders, to store an ever-increasing list of tasks); let your screen fill up with things to do and then use that pressure to take some of those items off your list.

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

#44

Post by krylon »

At my last job, I shared an office with my supervisor, and his desk was messy. I mean, my desks tend to accumulate a Cambrian layer over time, but this guy had two desks to himself, both were covered more than a foot deep in paper. I am not exaggerating.

One day, I carefully asked him if I could help him clean up some space. I was kind of nervous, because - while otherwise the best boss I ever had - he was not very good at taking what he perceived as criticism. To my surprise, though, he broke into a mischievous grin and said, "If I start to clean up here, it will take no more than five minutes for my boss to come in here and ask me if I have nothing better to do."

His boss was kind of a neat freak when it came to his own desk, but he was indeed the kind of boss who, when he saw you cleaning up your desk, would ask you if had nothing better to do. (Which suited me fine, to be honest, my current boss is more the "You should clean up your desk"-kind of guy...)

TL;DR - a messy desk can be fine, so long as it does not control you. I have seen people whose desks looked messy, but when asked for a specific item, they could reach for it without hesitation. Once you spend more time searching for things than you save by not keeping it in order, you have a problem.

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

#45

Post by retbull »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #28
Jtsummers wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

One problem with storing books in the column is that as the staircase rotates, it might hit any books that are jutting out. Although, I guess it doesn't have to rotate, I don't know why I wanted it to rotate.

Rotate the column as well.

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

#46

Post by basch »

Avshalom wrote: post #33
Rezo wrote: post #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 spe…

Yup I am happily humming along at inbox-7000 and never moving anything from firefox's Downloads folder.

work-inbox-21.5k gmail-inbox-49.5k

i cant imagine interacting, sorting, and deleting all those items. search works perfectly every time, never been unable to find a work email.

i also cant imagine using email as a todo list over some kind of team/projectmanagement inbox software such as https://www.enchant.com/, frontapp, intercom, missive, zendeskinbox, streak, trello, asana etc.

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

#47

Post by krylon »

Rezo wrote: post #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 spe…

The worst I have seen is people using the Trash folder to store mail, without eve emptying it. At work, I once had to clean out about 10000 mails from user's mailbox and thought it polite to empty the trash.

Oh, was she mad...

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

#48

Post by mattnewton »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #28
Jtsummers wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

One problem with storing books in the column is that as the staircase rotates, it might hit any books that are jutting out. Although, I guess it doesn't have to rotate, I don't know why I wanted it to rotate.

Because it's obviously cooler that way.

You could slant the shelves inwards so the books would be less likely to slowly slip out while it spins.

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

#49

Post by jacalata »

basch wrote: post #46
Avshalom wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup I am happily humming along at inbox-7000 and never moving anything from firefox's Downloads folder.

work-inbox-21.5k gmail-inbox-49.5k i cant imagine interacting, sorting, and deleting all those items. search works perfectly every time, never been unable to find a work email. i also cant imagine using email as a todo list over some kind of team/projectmanagement inbox software such as https://www.enchant.com/ , frontapp, intercom, missive, zendeskinbox, streak, trello, asana etc.

So, do you just track read-unread? Every email that is read has been pushed to a task management system? I know a lot of people with horrifically stuffed inboxes and I only consider one of them organized - the rest are prone to miss emails, or forget to do whatever they were asked because they read it and then it was in a giant bucket of unimportant stuff.

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

#50

Post by vvanders »

I feel like there's some parallel lurking here with software development. I've never seen a production codebase that doesn't have it's own share of clutter, mismash and rough edges similar to a disorganized desk.

Moving business requirements, obscure edge cases, performance concerns all seem to creep into an "orderly" codebase.

I don't think this applies to all software, things with a very long release/feedback cycle(aerospace, medical, etc) necessitate planning and careful deliberation but there's certainly a tension between order and shipping code.

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