Why Einstein Never Cleaned His Desk By Russell Thompson

I’m sure that we all went through “messy” phases when we were teenagers. Our rooms were our havens of disorganisation and chaos, much reflecting the tumultuous feelings running through our heads. Living in a messy room made us feel alive.
Some of the greatest thinkers and innovators or our time understood the value of (organised) chaos. Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, Steve Jobs, Tony Hsieh and Mark Zuckerberg all had (have) famously messy desks, but to them, they reflect the multitude of creative thoughts occupying their minds at any one time. To clean their desks is akin to washing out their brains with a tsunami of cleaning fluid. Would the iPhone have been invented if Steve Jobs had listened to his mum and cleaned his room more often? When questioned about his disorganised nature, Einstein retorted: “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, then what are we to think of an empty desk?”
Einstein’s desk in the picture above was photographed by Time photographer Ralph Morse on the day of his death. This gives a fascinating insight into one of the most brilliant minds in human history. Einstein could see beyond the chaos - without the chaos, there would be nothing to see at all.
So, at the beginning of spring, as people are contemplating cutting the lawn for the first time and giving the house a thorough clean, I would like to share a couple of the benefits of keeping your desk just that little bit messier:
You get a creative boost from a messy environment. When you let thoughts race unhindered through your head, it is often the case that the best idea will simply present itself. If your environment is suitably “individual”, you will feel that little bit more psychologically at ease with random thoughts. 95% of those thoughts will be useless at any given time, but the crucial 5% would not be there otherwise. Order can definitely come out of chaos for some people.
You can express your individuality. To certain people, minimalism might feel stifling and confining. Your bosses ask you to “think outside the box”, but that is pretty hard to do if you are surrounded by emptiness. Visual stimulation is vital in any part of our lives, and even a humble coffee stain can spark a genius train of thought. As technology starts to take over our working lives, our individuality is what will help us to get ahead at work. Let’s not stifle it.
Tidying takes time and energy. For a naturally “messy” thinker, being forced to keep their desks spotless at the end of the day is akin to erasing all of that day’s thoughts and starting with a blank sheet of paper the next day. Some of us need a tonne of doodles on our sheets of paper to come to the right conclusions – repeating the process from the start every day will prove a waste of time. Great ideas take time to germinate, and tidying up our desks and our minds is not always the best use of our energy.
This is of course just one perspective on the issue. There are conversely many people who simply can’t get anything done unless everything is perfectly in its place – the laptop had to be parallel with the phone and your coffee cup should sit right in the middle of the coaster.
We all work in different ways – the next time you see a messy desk, don’t jump to conclusions.
KINGSMITH.