Organization and creativity go hand in hand. If you’ve ever walked into a messy kitchen and tried to bake or cook you know this. It works much better when we start with a clean kitchen – then we get out all of the ingredients and make our delicious meal. In the process we dirty a bunch of dishes and make a mess.
The chaos that arises when you are in the process of creating something is active chaos. I’ll give you an example from my own experience. When I create a new class, I start out with a clean desk and a blank computer screen. I make a rough outline and then pretty soon, I think of one of my books that I would like to look at. While I’m at the bookshelf, I see a couple others that may have some ideas I would like to incorporate into the class. At some point I will look for images to include in the presentation and I start looking at both paper and electronic images that I have collected. After only a short time, my desk is covered with papers and books and my computer screen shows dozens of open windows. My office is messy but it is all actively being used. When I finish creating the class, I put everything back in it’s place and I create a place for all of the items associated with the new class. That way, when I want to teach the class, I can easily access the materials.
So we see a cycle of:
- start from nothing
- create (byproduct is active chaos)
- re-organize
- return to nothing
Problems occur when we don’t take the time to re-organize and return to nothing. If I leave all of my books and reference materials out and then start a new project on top of that, (And I have to be honest – this does happen sometimes.) I end up working on top of passive chaos. My old project now contributes to confusion and it slows down my ability to work.
Active chaos is a natural and desirable part of life. Passive chaos will bog us down. Make sure to take time to organize and re-organize on a regular basis. Our space then allows for fresh new ideas to manifest on a regular basis.
© Copyright Ann Kucera, 2008. All rights reserved.
Tags: , , Ann Kucera, chaos, creativity, office, organization
