A Place For Everything And Everything In Its Place
Don’t be startled. Not that it’s a slip of the tongue. You must have raised your finger and fumbled for the right expression murmuring ‘a place for everything and everything in its place.’ No, no, I agree to disagree. The words and expressions ‘uncluttered’, ‘in order, ‘neat and clean’ and many more give us stylish confidence and liberty to look down upon what are ‘shabby’, ‘messy’, ‘cluttered’ and what not. Moms are so religiously particular about seeing their kiddies orderly- keeping their desks, bookshelves, and beds tidy.
Bosses are keen to see the desks of the subordinates clean and paperless. But I rather frown at the shiny idea- makes you dull and hackneyed rather worn out. Nothing new and creative pops up in your mind. You always stay alert. A slight disorder unsettles you and you put all your energy into correcting the petty disarrangement and then you have the sense of satisfaction for what? That you corrected a slight wayward step from being clean and tidy. But don’t you think, it is like acting penny wise and pound foolish.
The Advocates Of Tidiness Or The Opponents Of Messiness
The advocates of tidiness or the opponents of messiness forget that even nature is not that orderly. It has been proved by the experts that nature likes a little bit of chaos. ‘a non-linear mixture of order and disorder. And there is a marked difference between natural and artificial- a jungle or a desert and a zoo. In a zoo, the baby camels are always at a loss to understand the relevance of their third clear eye. lid, large, tough lips, wide feet, and survival without water for months!
We are first making the frame and then cutting the masterpieces mechanically. Cruelly, and foolishly to fit them in the frame. We forget that creativity has a soft corner for a little bit of disorder. If keeping every corner clean we do not let messiness, with its proper share, creep in our shiny framework of tidiness. No doubt we are doing this sanitization at the cost of killing creativity.
Great Minds And Great Achievers
If we have a dekko at the desks of some great minds and great achievers. We will be aghast at the clutter. Ralph Morse. the Time photographer will always be complemented by the believers in untidiness for the single photograph. That he snapped of the desk of the great mind related with the theory of relativity on the day. He left this mundane abode. Although in his lifetime Einstein’s witty remark on his cluttered desk was “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, then what are we to think of an empty desk?
”Not only Einstein, geniuses of other fields, too, had their leaning towards messiness. Mark Twain was no exception. And we need to be more updated the desks of Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg have been found very pally-pally with those of the two former geniuses. Some strict disciplinarians may pooh-pooh at these examples dismissing the whole idea on a note saying that a few examples do not make rules.
Achieve Greater Creativity
But “the combination of recent studies and evidence from the world’s foremost creatives show that just the right amount of mess on your desk can help you achieve greater creativity, defy convention, and even be more productive.” Many psychological types of research have been conducted by eminent universities coming to the conclusion that the creative tasks need to keep away from tidiness, at least to maintain a respectful distance.
And if we go a little further Emlyn Rees and his better half Josie Lloyd have come up with a revolutionary theory of Shabbism- following maximalism. “A life that is not empty, but splendidly cluttered and full.”
So, let’s come out in a moonlit night. Feel the cool breeze on our cheeks. Forget the constrain of the tick-tock of the clock. Feel one with nature, and be a little bit messy at the desk translating the experience crossing beyond senses. (written by : sanjay kumar kundan )