Apparently having a clear desk opens up a lot of time and energy to indulge in on-line self-praise.
If you need to clean your desk to think straight, go do it, but it doesn't follow that everyone needs to clean their desk to have a clear mind while working; Einstein being the most famous counterexample.
As long as we're making wild generalizations, perhaps needing a clean desk to achieve focus is a sign of a basic weakness in the power of concentration?
Ah, the refrain of the neat freaks who feel a desperate need to trumpet their position (and obliquely judge all dissenters), justifying with simplistic metaphors that have no scientific basis...
My problem isn't a reliance on tools, it's being forced to use tools. IDEs, job queues, things that make me wait a thousand times a day. I wish I could drop java and eclipse down a deep deep well.
I know keyboard shortcuts are second nature for some people to hide/show windows. But in web/mobile app development, being able to see the mockup, the website, and the code all on one screen is a thing of beauty (and efficiency) to me.
I honestly don't think this works for everybody, as long as my mind is clear on what I have to do, it doesn't matter how messy my desk is. I used to be obsessed with everything being "minimalistic" clean and I figured it was because I wasn't working on the right jobs. As soon as I found my place, it didn't matter how my desk was.
Great until: Stay minimal, my people! It's good that it works for him but it's different strokes for different folks. I'd previously assumed the sterile environments you often see in "my desk" photos were staged for the photo but clearly not.
I know more creative and productive people with a little clutter than none at all. That said, Al Gore's desk sets my teeth on edge ;-) http://www.dailygalaxy.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/11/25/a... .. I find having my computer organized cleanly to be far more beneficial because that's where I spend more of my productive time.
Al knows exactly where everything is in that pile :) There is a subset of the population that has both very good spatial memory, and has the ability to "tune out" messes that they create -- they become part of the landscape.
I'm in this subset, and I'm count myself lucky that my girlfriend understands that even though my place looks messy to her, I can find anything in a heartbeat so long as no-one has moved it since I last placed it somewhere. She has an innate urge to organize so I don't know how she resists :)
Ha. I got a little carried away at the end. I know some people, my girlfriend for one, prefer a little "clutter" in order to create a more comfortable environment.
I usually keep my area looking much like the photo, but when I'm rushing to meet a deadline, the tiny amount of operational overhead it takes to stay neat seems to slip enough that clutter starts. Especially when working on little embedded dohickeys that need cables and connectors etc.
What I adore is that little space "in between" when the deadline has been met and I decompress by putting things away, setting things back into their right order, and getting ready for the next big push.
Clear desk, clear mind but also fresh layout, fresh mind...
I find that after changing an office layout (moving desks and changing things around) it results in a nice benefit of a slightly altered perspective that can be a good healthy boost of added productivity.
If you need to clean your desk to think straight, go do it, but it doesn't follow that everyone needs to clean their desk to have a clear mind while working; Einstein being the most famous counterexample.
As long as we're making wild generalizations, perhaps needing a clean desk to achieve focus is a sign of a basic weakness in the power of concentration?