microrobert
08-08-2013, 12:40 PM
Want to be more productive? Clean your desk. More creative? Trash it
A neat, orderly workspace may encourage generosity and generally “good” behavior, but a messy desk will foster your creativity. While it’s no surprise that keeping your pens lined up will make you a more efficient worker, a new study (http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-08/afps-tdo080513.php) may be the first research to show that disorder can also have a positive influence on workplace behavior. Don’t go knocking your pencil holder over for the heck of it, but it seems that a little chaos might be what workers need to get their creative juices flowing.
Following the broken windows theory (http://qz.com/108322/rio-de-janeiro-has-more-crime-simply-because-it-looks-depressing/), which suggests that visible disorder leads to increased destructive behavior (in other words, a single broken window left unfixed will lead to many more) the traditional school of thought suggests that neat workspaces are the way to go. But since order and disorder both exist in nature, researchers at the University of Minnesota hypothesized that chaos could sometimes be beneficial.
Want to be more productive? Clean your desk. More creative? Trash it ? Quartz (http://qz.com/112520/want-to-be-more-productive-clean-your-desk-more-creative-trash-it/)
A neat, orderly workspace may encourage generosity and generally “good” behavior, but a messy desk will foster your creativity. While it’s no surprise that keeping your pens lined up will make you a more efficient worker, a new study (http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-08/afps-tdo080513.php) may be the first research to show that disorder can also have a positive influence on workplace behavior. Don’t go knocking your pencil holder over for the heck of it, but it seems that a little chaos might be what workers need to get their creative juices flowing.
Following the broken windows theory (http://qz.com/108322/rio-de-janeiro-has-more-crime-simply-because-it-looks-depressing/), which suggests that visible disorder leads to increased destructive behavior (in other words, a single broken window left unfixed will lead to many more) the traditional school of thought suggests that neat workspaces are the way to go. But since order and disorder both exist in nature, researchers at the University of Minnesota hypothesized that chaos could sometimes be beneficial.
Want to be more productive? Clean your desk. More creative? Trash it ? Quartz (http://qz.com/112520/want-to-be-more-productive-clean-your-desk-more-creative-trash-it/)