Some days, it’s obvious that a tidy desk is more conducive to creativity. It barely needs explaining, it’s so obvious – minimal distractions, no obstructions, better focus. So I will carefully take everything off the desktop that can be put away, and put it away, and everything that I might need imminently is arranged in neat, perpendicular piles.
Other days, I know for a fact that an untidy desk is the route to creativity. And who would question it – the creative mind is impulsive, it’s completely immersed in what it is doing, it has no time for such unnecessary divertissements and procrastinations. And on these days, I will do my best to ensure that not an inch of tabletop is visible underneath my pile of guff. Not in a forced, unnatural way, of course, because that would negate the positive powers of the mess. I just do my best to do my worst job of tidying up after myself.
Do you do this?
4 replies on “Desk”
Yes
If my desk is not almost completely covered in piles of ‘guff’, as you say, I would say the very fact that I’m able to set aside a portion of the day to tidy the fecking thing, means I have far too much time on my hands, and should be spending it more productively.
Also, if my desk is tidy, with almost nothing on it, I am guaranteed to not know where anything I need is located. Hence the huge piles of everything I need, strewn all over the desk, exactly where it should be.
Exactly. That’s exactly what I’m trying to emulate when I’m in untidy mode. By having an untidy desk, I can claim that it’s just a symptom of productivity.
But then I catch myself being a phoney, and I’m ashamed, and that’s when I revert to tidy mode, which, truth be told, is the state which I find most aesthetically pleasing. It’s probably also the most practical, because when you’ve got guitar cables snaking across your desk, you want to minimise the number of things that they can gather up as they slither and meander.
Pete, you’re even untidy in an organised manner. For goodness sake.