The truth is that messiness is far from a bad thing. It can actually be a sign of intelligence and efficiency for many. Multiple studies have revealed that messiness is linked to smarts, meaning there’s no shame in being messy. If anything, living or working in organized chaos is a positive thing!
Don’t believe us yet? Don’t fret, as there’s plenty of science that backs this up. Here is how researchers reveal that messy people are actually productive geniuses.
HERE ARE 6 REASONS WHY MESSY PEOPLE ARE ACTUALLY PRODUCTIVE GENIUSES
1. WHY IS NEATNESS SO VALUED?
To understand why people believe organization is necessary for intelligence, let’s dive into why this is such a norm. As a child, you were likely raised to believe that keeping your room clean constantly was crucial to being considered “good.”
Most of us grew up believing that even the slightest amount of clutter is shameful. It makes us feel bad or like we don’t have our lives together. But where has this expectation come from?
The truth is that there is no legitimate proof that neatness truly means anything.
In fact, being too obsessed with an orderly lifestyle can result in more disorder.
Plus, no matter how hard you work to keep a space organized, you know it will get messy again soon.
Many workspaces around the world have leaders who insist on constant neatness. But studies have shown that when staff members are allowed to be at least slightly messy people, they are able to get up to 30% more tasks completed than in completely clean and clear environments.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that you can be a complete slob, live in poor hygiene, or never clean up after yourself. It doesn’t mean you can’t use a table, or a diary, or have an organized shelf. What it does mean is that there is a balance to be struck, and in the spectrum of that balance, there is nothing wrong with being a little messier than society wants you to be.
2. MESS CAN INSPIRE CREATIVITY AND BOOST INSPIRATION
Lots of writers, past and present, have worked with messy desks. Among them you’ll find Mark Twain, Roald Dahl, and J. K. Rowling. Supposedly, having a work table that is a little scattered about is great for promoting higher levels of creativity and innovation in problem-solving.
According to a study conducted in 2013 by Kathleen Vohs, who hails from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, messy work spaces can greatly increase positive innovative thought. Meanwhile, very tidy spaces tend to result in conventional thought and has a tendency to encourage workers to play it safe and stick to the status quo.
Although it sounds a little poetic and farfetched, this means that being messy is an outright manifestation of one’s ability to go against conventional norms and dare to be different. This is probably why so many unique thinkers were more than a little untidy. They dared to go against the grain, were spontaneous, and had braver ideas.
There’s also some additional information to be gained from this point. Those who are messy tend to have their most important work in more accessible places. Less important tasks, on the other hand, are buried beneath clutter. This can promote better productivity and less procrastination.
3. MESSY PEOPLE ARE MORE FOCUSED
For some, a messy environment is an immediate turn-off. It can reduce their positive thinking and bring down their ability to concentrate. It can stress them out and cause their efficiency to take a dive.
But those who live and thrive in a disorganized environment are capable of tuning out all that chaos. The mess around them is little more than white noise. This means that, in general, these supposedly messy people are able to maintain more focus through more intense distractions.
Basically, these individuals have a higher threshold of tolerance for distraction.
If this sounds confusing, think about it like you would those who have a higher tolerance for pain.
Someone who can’t stand clutter will become more stressed out more easily, while those who barely notice clutter will be able to do more before needing a break or getting burned out.
This is probably why so many people with untidy work spaces are more productive. Not all of them benefit directly from their messiness. Instead, their slightly chaotic desks represent their ability to keep cool and calm and ignore distractions, promoting better efficiency overall. Their lack of tidiness is just a symptom of their high distraction tolerance.
4. MESSY PEOPLE HAVE THEIR EYES ON THE BIG PICTURE
Seeing minute details is an important part of many tasks. But being able to see the bigger picture is what enables a person to create amazing new ideas and find fitting solutions to obscure problems. This skill can allow people to make faster decisions that benefit a project as a whole instead of obsessing over minor points that won’t matter in the long run.
When someone is messy, they have to be good at seeing the big picture to thrive. If not, they will fall victim to losing items, becoming stressed out at clutter, and concerning themselves with perfection. When you’re not aiming for perfection, you have more of a chance to take a look at the big picture.
This also means that untidy individuals tend to adapt better to new situations.
Instead of dwelling on the little things, they leap right in and make quick judgments for the best action based on the large view they see.
This allows them to be more efficient, react proactively to change, and grasp the gist of things in a quick manner.
Given how change is such a constant part of the world we live in, it’s an undeniably useful skill!
5. MESSY PEOPLE DON’T STOP TO CLEAR UP
Entropy is a “law of the universe” of sorts. Essentially, it means that the world is constantly shifting from organized to disorganized. There is no point at which organization becomes permanent – chaos is always sure to follow. In fact, Adam Frank, a physicist, states that disorder is just the universe’s most natural state, so messy people have the right idea.
This means that no matter how many times you clear up a work area, it will only get messy again. While general light cleaning is important for cleanliness and hygiene, going to the extreme in neatness can be pretty bad for productivity.
In fact, taking the time to clean up a work area can drain hours of valuable time away. This time could have been better spent working or chugging along on more important tasks. Messy people aren’t going to stop to give their room or office a full clean before settling down to work. They’re just going to jump straight to their necessary tasks.
On top of that, cleaning and tidying can be a form of procrastination. Many people fall into the trap of saying they’ll do their work right after organizing their papers, or when they’re done rearranging the items on their desk. And since disorder always comes after order, it won’t be long before this procrastination starts up again.
Messy people have the ability to ignore this avenue for procrastination. Maybe that is why science has shown that they can be productive geniuses!