Creative and Clean

This past week I was experimenting with the latest recommendation from Bruce Mau's "Incomplete Manifesto for Growth" which states "Don’t clean your desk. You might find something in the morning that you can’t see tonight."

A few years ago, I would have supported this recommendation 100%. My desk in corporate life was notorious. Piles everywhere to the point I wondered how I could find space to work. I even had piles of paper and folders on the floor under my desk and behind me. It gave me a false sense of security, as if I had accomplished something. I had piles and piles of paper to show I was "doing" something. In reality, I was only killing trees. In my last corporate position, at the Division's annual holiday party, I won an "award" for the messiest desk. Not one of my proud moments.

So now I come across a suggestion that encourages me not to clean up. I was baffled at first. I have since began cleaning up and keeping a cleaner work space so this idea hit me as regression. I concluded that although the intent is correct, the approach misses the mark. The issue isn't about cleaning a desk. The issue is about allowing myself to be open day in and day out, to see things differently today than I did yesterday. To experience things new and thus give me a new perspective and possibly a new direction.

I can do this with a clean desk. This is an attitude change. A messy desk in the end causes more angst and time consuming anxiety and allowing for a new and opening experience. So, I'm going to continue to clean up every night. But in the morning, I'm starting each day as if it were the first day of the project. And yes, I may just see something I didn't notice the night before.

This week I will be looking at "Don’t enter awards competitions. Just don’t. It’s not good for you."