Life hacking: Do not waste time cleaning the table
Text: Anna Savina
We are looking for simple and not very good ways to improve life and explain why they work. Today we understand why an uncleaned desktop helps the workflow.
Each of us at least once a week looks at his desk with a surprised look and notes with a heavy sigh that it will take at least half an hour to clean it. Used batteries, a pile of magazines, each of which can come in handy at any time, important and unimportant notes, perhaps even self-generated life in a mug of unfinished coffee, hidden behind the monitor of the third day. It seems that working in such conditions is impossible, but the thought of having to sort through this whole mess is also not encouraging. What exactly do you need on the table, and do you need to clear it to an immaculate state?
"If a cluttered table means confusion in the head, then what does the table mean empty?" - This statement by Albert Einstein justifies many people who, like the famous physicist, do not like to clean up their workplace. However, in recent years, even more arguments against supporters of the ideal order have appeared. Recently, psychologist Kathleen Vos of the University of Minnesota conducted a study that proved that people working at a table where disorder reigns show more imagination when performing tasks and are more likely to make risky decisions than those who have a cleaned workplace. Vos is sure: "Uncleaned spaces inspire people to violate rules and traditions and help them come to unbanal decisions."
Eric Abrahams, a professor at Columbia University and co-author of the book A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder, agrees with Vos. The scientist argues that people, on whose desk everything is neatly laid out, are much more difficult to find the necessary thing than to those who rarely retract, because they were the first to create an overly complex system of organizing objects.
Uncleaned spaces inspire people to break rules and traditions.
In the Busy Building Things blog, they noticed that Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein and Mark Twain are united by the fact that they were rarely cleaned up in their workplace. These three inventors found a way to cope with the disorder: in a variety of papers, magazines and other things they easily found what they needed and were able to organize the space around.
Many creative people drew inspiration from the surrounding space. For example, when an American virologist, Jonas Salk, conducted research to develop the first polio vaccine, he went on a trip to Umbria - the Italian region next to Tuscany. The scientist recalled that changing the situation helped him make a discovery. But it is not necessary to go on a trip: even a small change of scenery will help to find more unusual solutions in the work.
The authors of the blog specialize in motivational products and developing online content, so their advice should be heeded (after all, they themselves manage to work efficiently). Here's what they say: “If you want to change something to work better, try, for example, not to throw away the magazines you read, but leave them on the table. Do not put books you read on the shelf, and, in general, keep it at hand all the things that can inspire you. It’s important to note that you shouldn’t keep garbage: leftover food and dirty dishes will only hurt you. "
Photo: 1, 2 Shutterstock
The material was first published on the site Look At Me.