Desk Mess

You probably know that your desk is a mess but what do others think of your messy desk? As I walk through a client's office, one thing I notice are desks and also the neatness or messy-ness of the desk. When I see a neat desk, I then look at the person sitting at that desk to see if the person confirms what I suspect about him/her. Are they neat, attractive, well attired, well groomed? I am more apt to approach someone at a neat desk than someone at a messy desk. When someone has a tidy desk, we perceive them as sincere, intelligent, ambitious, warm and calm easy to be around.

We have all the seen the Professor with papers stacked a mile high in his/her office and they assure us they know where everything is but what is our perception of the messy Professor? What a mess! Yet a messy desk works for some people. The problem with messy desks is that we make judgment calls about the person and his/her messy desk. When we see that they have a messy desk, we perceive them to be less sincere, intelligent, ambitious, warm and caring. This may or may not be true but remember, it's all in the eye of the beholder.

I wish I could tell you that I keep my desk clean and neat at all times but that simply wouldn't be true. I have a lot of stuff on my desk that I use daily: computer, glass of water, calculator, scotch tape dispenser, phone, headset, printer and dayplanner. When the mess gets too much, I simply have to stop and clean some stuff up. For instance, after I get the mail, I open it and toss it, put a bill in a pile to be paid or file it. I then pay all the bills because I don't want those messing up my desk and it is an easy task to pay the bills and put them in the tickler file to mailed on the appropriate day.

When I get my desk cleaned up, I feel much better and it seems to motivate me to do more. I like to see wood instead of papers.