Why Creative Geniuses Often Keep a Messy Desk
Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, and Mark Twain. What is one thing these three visionaries have in common? They all had very messy workspaces.
This post originally appeared on the Busy Building Things Blog.
These three game-changers were never ones to follow the crowd. We can see this by how unconventionally disorganized their desks are. There was a method to this madness: under the mass of papers, magazines, and various objects, there is a sense of organization only the creator can operate through.
Here are some other creative powerhouses that have messy desks:
Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook hard at work on product.(Image via Tiphereth.)
Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, with everything ranging from books on culture to cowboy hats. (Image via Complex.)
Max Levchin, co-founder and former CTO of PayPal. (Image via Complex.)
Other notable creatives with astonishingly messy desks include programmer and codebreaker Alan Turing, discoverer of penicillin Alexander Fleming, as well as painter Francis Bacon.
Environments have historically played a major factor in how creative our minds are. For example, when he was trying to create the first polio vaccine, medical researcher and virologist Jonas Salk went to the monastery at the Basilica of Assisi in Umbria, Italy and explained in his later days that this environment change helped contribute to the discovery. It doesn't necessarily take such a massive change to prompt creativity; rather, the key to a more creative state of mind can be found right at our desks.
Recently, a study conducted by the University of Minnesota found that people with a messy desk were more prone to creativity and risk taking, while people at cleaner desks tended to follow strict rules and were less likely to try new things or take risks. Dr. Vohs and her co-authors conclude in the study, "Disorderly environments seem to inspire breaking free of tradition, which can produce fresh insights."
Calibrating Creativity and Efficiency
Rather than leaving a desk in a state of constant messiness, it can be helpful to modify the environment as it suits our needs. Think of messiness and cleanliness as a spectrum that also has a corresponding creativity setting.
The study in the University of Minnesota featured an experiment where respondents with clean desks chose apples over candy bars, and selected more established solutions over new ones. When you're generating ideas and concepts, it could help to have a messier desk. However, when you're trying to be productive, getting a specific task accomplished, or simply need to execute on a creative concept, cleaning your desk can "trade in" your creativity for efficiency.
In case you are trying to be more creative, here are some ideas: instead of throwing out those magazines right after you're done with them, leave them hanging around your desk. Don't shelf those books yet. Keep anything that could potentially inspire you (including art prints). "There are two types of messy environments," Vohs said in an interview with NY Daily News. "One is unkempt and one is dirty. I don't think these results suggest leaving around banana peels and dirty dishes for a week."
Social Perceptions
This creativity comes with a social cost: as staffing firm Adecco discovered, the majority of our colleagues and peers judge us based on how clean (or dirty) our desks are. Should your desk be left in a perpetually messy state, "They think that you must be a slob in your real life," says Adecco's VP of Recruiting Jennie Dede in an interview with Forbes.
While remaining hygienic would minimize the possibility of this scenario, here's another reason not to leave your desk in a constant mess. Adjust it along the spectrum between the ends of creativity and efficiency. Be aware of the impression you may be giving to colleagues, but don't be afraid to explain your reasons for an intentionally messy desk—you've got anecdotal and empirical evidence right here.
Closing Thoughts
Starting at very early ages, we have been trained to clean up our toys and make our beds. But perhaps our mothers had it wrong. As you can see from the examples above, messy environments can enhance our creativity by letting our lives get a little messy.
Why You Should Have a Messy Desk | Busy Building Things
Inspiration is a fuel, a temporary ability to do tough things. Companies like Facebook, Google, and Shopify renew their inspiration by using our art products. Get busy building things. This post was written by Herbert Lui and edited by Robleh Jama.
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DonutsBusy Building Things3/03/14 7:33amUh, just to set the record straight: Calling Jobs a genius degrades the term. He was a good CEO who got the world to buy a bunch of gadgets. He was no Einstein.Reply
AlexCLDonuts3/03/14 8:15amMaking the first mass produced home computer, making the first commercial computer with a GUI, buying and developing Pixar, revolutionizing the music industry, revolutionizing the cell phone industry...nope no Genius here...just a boss with a couple of cool products...Reply
timgrayDonuts3/03/14 9:08amIt's as bad as calling Gates a "genius" or "Elon Musk" a "genius"Reply
Nerdfesttimgray3/03/14 9:19amIt's far worse than either of those examples.Reply- timgrayNerdfest3/03/14 11:26amno not really. Both of them are nothing more than what Jobs was. Really good at marketing, but useless at real design. They all were good at hiring people that can do actual work though.Reply
uthor1981Busy Building Things3/03/14 7:21amThere's a lot of correlation=causation going on here.Reply
Pie Snatcheruthor19813/03/14 8:21amI take it you have a clean desk?Reply- uthor1981Pie Snatcher3/03/14 8:25amNope, not at all. And I'm not creative.Reply
- jamesIgoeuthor19813/03/14 10:41amYou are right. There is an inverse correlation between conscientiousness and fluid intelligence, and messiness is likely an aspect of low conscientiousness. This is not a bad thing. When you need people who are rule-followers and appointment-keepers you might look for high conscientiousness, but those same individuals might be too bound to convention for great creativity or insight. To reverse the cliche, conscientious people think inside the box, and sometimes that matters, but being messy in and of itself, while increasing creativity, is not the cause of creativity.Reply
- jamesIgoeuthor19813/03/14 10:49amIn the same study showing the inverse relationship between conscientiousness and fluid intelligence, the authors mentioned that conscientiousness might be compensatory in individuals who cannot cope with change, and so make rules in order to survive, while the more fluidly intelligent do well without the need to impose order.Reply
redfoodBusy Building Things3/03/14 7:53amI had a brilliant Math professor in college (the kind that is so smart its hard for them to have a normal conversation) who's office was kneed deep in stacks of paper with a narrow path to his desk which was also covered in papers. It looked like a borders nest.One day we were talking about something and he said "ooh I have a paper about that." I walked into his office a yard, took a step to the right, and reached down and pulled out the paper from the middle of a stack - first try. It was amazing.Reply- appledeeredfood3/03/14 9:21amI had a law school prof who did the same thing. Absolutely brilliant and an expert in his field. I went to talk to him about the paper I was writing for his seminar. His office was piled with books and papers, and he had bookshelves (also full and not neatly organized on a couple of walls). He walked over to a bookshelf, reached into a stack of papers and pulled mine out. I knew I was in the presence of a master.Reply
DaveSevredfood3/03/14 9:27amDid you go to the University of Akron?Reply- jjdebenedictisredfood3/03/14 11:56amApparently Jeff Healey, the blind Canadian guitarist, had a massive collection of vinyl records. Being blind, he had no need of the album sleeves, so he kept his collection filed on his shelves, on edge, without their covers, in a long row that looked like a giant black tube worm.He could walk over to a shelf and pull the record he wanted out of the "worm" on the first try. And remember, he was completely blind.Reply
- redfoodDaveSev3/10/14 12:37amnoReply
donniedarko2001Busy Building Things3/03/14 7:48amWhile I'm in the creative messy desk group and I work better with a messy desk. Having a messy desk isn't going to make someone who isn't creative suddenly creative. The seeming chaos is both a tool and a reflection of the inner creative process. It is not a universal constant. If you aren't already wired that way it will not magically make you something you aren't.Reply
jeepingeekdonniedarko20013/03/14 9:51amI agree I can't stand having a messy desk when I am starting in to a new project. the clutter distracts me and stresses me out. in fact as I write this I'm looking around at all of the things that have accumulated that I need to find a home for...Reply
Tracey Smithdonniedarko20013/03/14 10:13amI consider myself a pretty creative soul and my desk is typically fairly clean...at least it starts the day that way. I am a teacher and throughout the day different things find themselves all over my desk, but one routine I never miss is tidying up my desk at the end of the day. Why? Because it gives me a sense of closure and it is much less stressful for me to come in the following day to a clean desk as opposed to a messy one. Also for me I, one of my areas of creativity is ORGANIZING, I like it and like to help others do it as well. So let's not put someone in a box as like another poster already said "not everyone with a messy desk is creative" and "not everyone with a clean desk is NOT creative".Reply- donniedarko2001Tracey Smith3/03/14 10:52amI'm not trying to say a clean desk shows a lack of creativity. My point, the article, especially the source article's headline implies that a messy desk causes creativity, creativity isn't that black and white. I personally work better with the mess, but it isn't the mess that is making me creative.Reply
AaronTheGreatBusy Building Things3/03/14 6:11amOr... just screwing around on Facebook.Reply
AndyWSmallAaronTheGreat3/03/14 8:30amthey call that "QA testing"Reply
JiaJemAaronTheGreat4/26/14 9:06pmI thought you were highlighting the empty wine glass behind his laptop. And then Hseih's grey goose and redbull. And then Levchin's 2 mini booze bottles (? hopefully?) . I think I'm going to keep these things on my desk now. For productivity.Reply
DanYHKimBusy Building Things3/03/14 11:05amProverbs 14:4 CJBWhere there are no oxen, the stalls are clean; but much is produced by the strength of an ox.Reply- TertioptusDanYHKim3/04/14 9:02amWow, I love that scripture. And I love the fact that you used one, period.Reply
- DanYHKimTertioptus3/04/14 9:43amI caution anyone who reads this: No matter how wise or ancient, this scripture will not go over well with your supervisor, even if you point out that the office-mates with clean desks don't get half the amount of work done. It is also not too popular with the fire marshall.Reply
gerrrgBusy Building Things3/03/14 7:17amI have two kinds of mess.- The mess that doesn't require immediate attention and shall sit there until it absolutely needs to be dealt with.
- The mess that I leave around because I want it to stew in my head.
In either case, I generally do remember what's where, even if under a stack.BobI always say I have a very sophisticated "piling5 - TertioptusBusy Building Things3/03/14 10:19amThis is beyond anecdotal retardation! Not quite sure how to succinctly craft the entirety of sentiments that I am now burdened with from reading this inane "bulshivitz". [Gesundheit ]Post hoc ergo propter hoc. Example: I want to play in the NFL. NFL players often have had concussions. Have a concussion, and play in the NFL.These idiot savants weren't geniuses because they excelled in chaotic environments. They're just imperfect people who are really smart and creative, who have yet to find a system that could keep up with or rather not get in the way of their productivity. Look again at the alleged messy desks, to some they are rather neat and structured.If you go around telling work bees to throw caution to the wind, and throw magazines around they are going to become useless. Only thing they are going to create is a way to organize those magazines. It's not going to make them an architect.No offense to the author. But I think a lot of these "geniuses" would be better served with an organized environment that would free them up to create even greater things.Reply
- Tertioptus3/03/14 4:50pmI'd love to see what Steve Jobs desk looked like. For everything else he was noted as minimalist. But I guess you guys would say that he wasn't a creative genius.I think people have this idea of mental prowess that's been fed to them by Hollywood. You know how great things are built overnight, by one person, amidst the chaos. And we eat it up, because we want to believe that story instead of soberly assessing ourselves and the lack of maturity thereof.Reply
- gerrrgTertioptus3/03/14 6:44pmGo listen to Einstein on the Beach. What seems disorganized, isn't, and is generally a natural trait.As for Steve Jobs at work: http://goo.gl/duTqet and http://goo.gl/1dAKwoReply
- timgrayBusy Building Things3/03/14 9:05amI keep a messy desk because I do not have time to waste with cleaning it. Seriously if they want my desk clean then I get all day Friday or Monday to do nothing but organize and clean. Or they can stop giving me 5X normal human workload if being "neat and tidy" is that important.Oh and none of those examples are "messy" desks. you can still see desk in each of them.Reply
CostermongerBusy Building Things3/03/14 9:20amThere is a vast difference between 'dirty' and 'cluttered.' You can be disorganised and still be sanitary.2
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