The idea that a cluttered desk indicates a cluttered mind goes back all the way to 1911. By the 1940s, people were so annoyed with this admonishment that a corollary began to form: an empty desk reflects an empty mind. Take that, finger-waggers! “Better to have a messy brain than no brain at all, don’t you think?”
It was a worthy attempt at a clever counter, but it’s unlikely to exceed its joke-status any time soon. Because in the real world, both an ordered and an empty desk are more conducive to getting things done than a disorganized stack of papers, markers, and notes.
The benefit of the ordered desk is obvious. You know what’s where, and you can grab what you need when you need it. But what about the empty one?
First, some…
The idea that a cluttered desk indicates a cluttered mind goes back all the way to 1911. By the 1940s, people were so annoyed with this admonishment that a corollary began to form: an empty desk reflects an empty mind. Take that, finger-waggers! “Better to have a messy brain than no brain at all, don’t you think?”
It was a worthy attempt at a clever counter, but it’s unlikely to exceed its joke-status any time soon. Because in the real world, both an ordered and an empty desk are more conducive to getting things done than a disorganized stack of papers, markers, and notes.
The benefit of the ordered desk is obvious. You know what’s where, and you can grab what you need when you need it. But what about the empty one?
First, some definitions. If we take “no mind” to mean someone is unconscious, and “no brains” to mean someone hasn’t got any smarts, then there must be a difference between either of those and “empty mind”—a consciousness which is aware, potentially equipped with vast intelligence, yet not currently occupied with any particular concern.
That’s where an empty desk gets you: You’re forced to approach your every next task from scratch. In the process of doing so, you’ll undoubtedly use whatever you’ve learned and mastered thus far. But before pulling random or even organized threads together from a set of resources in front of you, you’ll begin without any baggage. “Who do you need me to be, and what do I need to assemble?” That’s balance born from emptiness. So if you ask me, I’ll gladly take an empty desk and the power of resetting that comes with it.
Not to mix metaphors too much but: Perhaps both “glass half full” and “glass half empty” folks have targets to work towards. One side can add more joy and happiness, the other can pour our what remains. Sometimes, empty is good—and the most important part is sitting at your desk to begin with.
Nik
Niklas Göke writes for dreamers, doers, and unbroken optimists. A self-taught writer with more than a decade of experience, Nik has published over 2,000 articles. His work has attracted tens of millions of readers and been featured in places like Business Insider, CNBC, Lifehacker, and many others. Nik has self-published 2 books thus far, most recently 2-Minute Pep Talks. Outside of his day job and daily blog, Nik loves reading, video games, and pizza, which he eats plenty a slice of in Munich, Germany, where he resides.