"If only my table was bigger..."

I USED TO THINK: IF ONLY MY DESK WAS BIGGER, IT'D BE CLEANER. BUT THAT COULDN'T BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH.

I've always struggled with keeping an organized desk.

I know where everything is, so I have that going for me. But I can't stop a once-presentable desk from filling up with things I tell myself I'll put away...one day.

And I used to think: if only my desk was bigger, it'd be cleaner.

But that couldn't be further from the truth.

I thought that while I had a tiny college desk.

I thought that while I had two college desks pushed together.

I thought that while I had a decent office desk.

And the result was the same. Clutter.

The solution was not a bigger table. In fact, as the table size grew, the more messy things I end up filling it with.

Resources (and junk) expand to fill the space allowed for it.

An unseemly candidate for being the greatest liberator of humanity

When washing machines took off in popularity in the early to mid 1900's, there was one primary value proposition that advertisers hammered home: it will save you time and work.

Doing laundry used to be a whole-day ordeal, and the bulk of household tasks required full-time work. This kept women from pursuing many other endeavors outside of housekeeping. Thus, the spread of the washing machine has been seen as a force behind the improvement of women's economic position in society.

In 2009, the Italian newspaper L'Osservatore Romano reprinted an article arguing that the washing machine had done more for the "emancipation of women" than the contraceptive pill and abortion rights.

The promise of freeing up time for other pursuits - especially leisure - was a major appeal.

Take a look at some of these ads:

The same promise still stands even in modern advertisement.

More time. More leisure. That was the idea. And did it fulfill its promise?

We could say yes, it is true that significantly less time is now spent on laundry. But it doesn't seem we are any more free or leisurely with our time. We thought we could escape busyness, but we've merely transferred our busyness from one place to another.

We thought computers will save us time - and they did. But computers didn't give us time for leisure and more than before. As our technological capability gets better, it's like the table getting bigger. We do get more time back, for sure. But what do we do with that time?

We fill it with more work.

Resources (and busyness) expand to fill the space allowed for it.

A messy mind

At the core, my real problem is not a messy desk or a lack of space. It's a messy and disorganized mind.

Let's get some psychology into this.

Right now I'm typing away at my messy desk. Every time I sit down at the table, there is my "area of focus", so to speak, which basically consists of my monitor, keyboard, and mousepad.

Outside of that area is the periphery - the rest of the desk - and that is where the bulk of my mess is: a coke can, a stack of books, my watch and keys, a random magazine from my alma mater, and a clump of mail I got from the government asking for personal information that I'm reluctant to give.

An area of focus (that is relatively clean) and the periphery (which is a mess). Tell me you don't see your desk the same way.

And what's crazy is this is a direct reflection of my mind. In the "area of focus" is whatever I'm dealing with, be it a task or watching a YouTube video. This area can be pretty organized.

But then there's the periphery in my brain, which consists of all my fleeting thoughts, the things I tell myself I'll get to later (like that stack of books), my unhealthy habits (the coke can), and the things I try to ignore (the clump of mail).

It's quite likely you too have a place where you dump all the things you don't want to deal with at the moment. It's your get-to-it-later dump. (Let me know where yours is 😜)

How we treat our physical space is correlated with how we treat our minds.

In order to keep an organized desk, I need to buckle up my courage and put in the work of sorting things through. And I need to do the same with my mind. One effective way to do this is with journaling. Another is with keeping a "second brain", or a knowledge management system.

It's a choice

Our busyness is not an efficiency issue. It's a mindset issue. It's a choice.

Do you choose to carve out time for personal care? Time for family? Time for service to your community? Time for what matters to you?

Better technology doesn't cure a busy mind.

Thank you for being a part of my community! If you enjoy this newsletter, consider sharing it with others who might benefit from it as well! And if you want to reach out, you can reply to this email :)

​Unsubscribe · Preferences​