Here’s a very interesting and fun article about what your mess may mean about you.

According to some researchers, a messy desk may be the sign of an active and intelligent mind. High achievers often have piles of paper and book mess around their offices, but there is order amidst the chaos:

A clean desk really does signify an empty mind. “Office messiness tends to increase sharply with increasing education, increasing salary, and increasing experience,” they write, based on studies that I am inclined to accept without reservation.

My office and home used to be very messy, mostly because of the piles and piles of paper from self publishing, and the fact that I could no longer afford to rent outside office space. Moving about 100 boxes of stuff into a 750 square foot condo made for cramped quarters. I was miserable with the situation.

Read through the posts as well. Here’s an interesting tidbit:

Years ago McClellan offered a motivational theory that suggested people with clean desks and grip and grin photos were motivated by power; people with messy desks/offices were motivated by achievement; people with toys and family photos were motivated by affiliation. The theory went on to suggest that each of us is motived by all 3 factors in varying degrees.

Hm…my office looks like all of these things, with different zones showing extreme organization, minor clutter, and friendly family photos. My clutter increases or decreases depending on my workload, but nowadays, I schedule time to deal with clutter every single day, so it doesn’t get out of hand.

“Messy desk owners typically, for example, have separate piles for urgent, less-urgent, and non-urgent documents.”

A good point, that. But trouble comes when there is no more room for separate piles. They bleed into one another, or start to fall down, or both. By that point, using the desktop to create a new document is kind of impractical.

“As the mess grows, the rate at which the advantages grow tends to slow and eventually trail off,” the authors write. “Meanwhile the rate at which the disadvantages accumulate will eventually start to take off….”
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