Say Anything Blog

Then you’re fired!

Sponsored by publisher Little, Brown and Co., the competition promoted “A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder,” by Eric Abrahamson and David Freedman, a new book that argues neatness is overrated, costs money, wastes time and quashes creativity.

“We think that being more organized and ordered and neat is a good thing and it turns out, that’s not always the case,” said Freedman.

“Most of us are messy, and most of us are messy at a level that works very, very well for us,” he said in an interview. “In most cases, if we got a lot neater and more organized, we would be less effective.”

Well I’m far from keeping a perfectly clean desk but I try not to let it get too out of hand.  By that I mean I don’t let my desk collapse from being overloaded by paper.

Work is divided into a number of parts.  Things you have to get done.  Things that have a deadline.  Things that should be done, but can wait.  Things your boss wants done but aren’t really important.  Things you’d like to do when you get time.  Also there are always a ton of magazines that you’d like to read, but just don’t get around to.

So yes I’m a desk pile-er.  My biggest challenge is keeping track of those things that need to be done but you can’t do right now.  Keeping track of those can be a real challenge.  A couple things I try to do is to handle a piece of paper once (if possible.) If I can do it now, do it now.  If it should be someone else’s job assign it.  Don’t take jobs from underlings if you can possibly help it.

How do you stay productive?