| |
|
February
28, 2007:
Neatness vs. Messiness - Which Is Better? II
Interview
with David H. Freedman, author of A
Perfect Mess
|
Mike
Carruthers:
Neatness
counts - we've heard that since we were kids and it's imbedded
in our brains.
David H. Freedman:
Which really goes back to books like The Cat in the
Hat, which we read a million times as kids. The Cat in the Hat
is a story about two kids left alone in a house that gets messy
and they're terrified their Mom is going to come home and not
love them anymore because of their messy house.
Dean Freedman,
co-author of the book
A Perfect Mess, says there is nothing wrong with being less
than perfectly neat and organized if that's your nature. In
fact, being neat may be over-rated.
You give up a
lot of things when you're neat and organized. For one thing
you've got to sink a lot of time into it. People who are really
neat and organized actually spend a substantial fraction of
their day working on it and that's time that could be spent
doing other things. Another thing is, neat people, when you
file stuff away, when you containerize, and you purge - you
can't put your finger on things.
And that's because
life isn't always easy to organize.
This is a problem
that everyone who tries to be neat and organized has - if you're
going to be neat and organized, you better be prepared to categorize
everything, to make everything fit into your system. Well, you
know what? The world is a messy place, there's ambiguity, things
don't fit into any categories.
David is not
arguing that everyone be a slob; his point is that neat is good
for some, less neat is good for others and we shouldn't try
to change people.
And I think the
best thing to say is; you probably should do - what feels natural
and what seems to work the best for you.
At somethingyoushouldknow.net
I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.
|
|
| Keep
up with Mike! Join
the "Something You Should Know" Insider
Update. We'll
e-mail your Update to you every 2 weeks.
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|