ASHLYEE HICKMAN
Living Editor
With a barrage of old homework assignments, books from fall semester, various syllabi and Odwalla or Starbucks drinks used as paperweights, college desks are a mess.
Freshman Misty Adams notices the steady accumulation on her desk.
“I clean it up when it gets annoying,” Adams said, “Or when I need space for other clutter.”
What parents isn’t the biggest issue. Whether it affects performance is.
But no need to fear, authors David Freedman and Eric Abrahamson say mess can be a sign of brilliance.
In their book “A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder— How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and On-the-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place” they present the counter-intuitive notion that disorganization can be productive — a college student’s dream.
“Messy people can be effective and efficient with their messiness,” Freedman said. “There are benefits to being messy.”
The first benefit is that it saves energy.
“Being neat and ordered takes resources,” said Freedman.
In the book, they reference the fact that CEOs of major companies have clean desks and houses because they utilize resources, their staff, to organize for them.
Another precious resource is time. Freedman said neat people tend to spend one to four hours straightening up.
Messiness is also a matter of convenience. Adams said her desk doesn’t bother her because she has a general idea of where everything is.
Rather than rummaging through color-coded Rubbermaid containers, Ziploc bags, and meticulously labeled file folders, Adams checks her desk.
“It’s easier for me because everything I need is right there,” she said.
Freedman said there is a method to what some would perceive as madness.
“When you allow a certain degree of messiness you’re keeping stuff athand that could be important,” he said.
This is the life of an average college student, Freedman said, and it’s healthy.
“In general, college students are among the messiest people on the planet,” he said. College students are OK with rolling out of bed and going to class in pajamas; they can tolerate scaling the Mt. Everest of clothes to find something to wear.
Freedman said parents and professors admonish students and tag their unorthodox way of living as irresponsible, but they shouldn’t jump to such rash conclusions.
“What often gets ignored is that college for them [students] is one of the most productive times of their lives. It’s when they really thrive. We should be more appreciative.”
When it comes to the benefits of organization, Freedman has it down to a science.
After spending time with a physicist who found that adding disorder to an organized circuit could make the system more effective, Freedman wanted to take it a step further.
He found out the brain, with its signals and chemicals, works the same way.
“Randomness makes things work better,” Freedman said.
If this worked for Mother Nature and the human brain, he set out to see where else it applied.
He found Eric Abrahamson who wrote earlier pieces suggesting the same principle could be applied to daily life, businesses and the cognitive process.
“[Messiness] fits the way you think,” Freedman said. “It’s a natural organization scheme.”
In the book, the authors reference great minds like Albert Einstein, who was known for his disheveled appearance and working space.
Freedman said disorganization can play a key part in creativity.
Creative people are known to think outside the box, and their thoughts are often unexpected and random.
“Mess is like that,” Freedman said. “People who think in random, novel ways like their environment to be that way.”
“A Perfect Mess,” conveys the argument that people who constantly plan their lives are not reaping all its possibilities.
There is something to be said about improvisation. According to Freedman, people who meticulously plot out nearly every moment of their lives are “missing the new opportunities that spring up.”
This lack of the “carpe diem” spirit constricts life and does not allow time for exploration.
Also, since it is impossible to make accommodations for everything, planning is sometimes pointless.
For those who need an excavation crew to navigate through their working space, this book may not totally justify it. With this concept, moderation is key.
“It’s not the more messy the better. For most people, in many aspects that you look at, there’s going to be an ideal kind of messiness,” Freedman said.
All this talk about messy being the way of life is not meant to demean the neat and orderly.
Freedman said they’re capable of success as well.
“I think we all know someone who is efficient and effective while being organized,” Freedman said. “It may be that they’d do even better if they were less organized.”
With her English and chemistry assignments sprinkled on her desk and the brightly colored Post-it notes reminding her the upcoming activities serving as an external skin for her desk, Adams said obsessively cleaning her desk is not on her priority list.
“I don’t really mind it,” she said. “If it affected my grades, I’d mind, but right now it’s working.”
03-29-2007