Messy Desk – Vindication!!!!!!

For years, and years, I have taken grief for my messy desk at work. Now, research has come forward, and it wasn't paid by me :) that says a messy desk makes you a more creative, efficient, clear headed employee. A cluttered desk is not a sign of a cluttered mind, according to an analysis of six studies. In fact, working on messy desks prompts people to focus, think more clearly and simplify the tasks at hand. "Messy desks may not be as detrimental as they appear to be," says researcher Jia Liu, of German's University of Groningen. "The problem solving approaches they seem to cause can boost work efficiency or enhance an employee's creativity." Many great thinkers preferred to work at messy desks, including genius physicist Albert Einstein, President Abraham Lincoln and psychiatrist Sigmund Freud. "If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind," Einstein once posed, "Then what are we to think of an empty desk?" And business writer Tavia Grant reports: "People who have messy desks spend less time hunting for things than people who have very neat desks. That is because they are arranging things in a way that is customized to the way they think and work."

So there!