Piling, Filing and Free Styling

In their book A Perfect Mess, Eric Abramson and David H. Freeman maintain that people with messy desks are more productive than the neatniks who maintain order in their work space. I won't argue with their premise, but I do believe that there is a difference between messy and chaotic. My belief in that difference comes from personal experience. When I was Vice President of Operations of a health care company, I dealt with dozens of deadlines and hundreds of contacts every week. My desktop held a series of untidy piles of paper. I knew what was in each pile and approximately how many inches down each pile I needed to look for certain information. When the issues were no longer current, my talented (and tolerant) assistant gathered up the stack and collated it into a coherent filing system, where I could find the information when I needed it again. When my assistant was on vacation and I relied on folks less familiar with the established routine, the system sometimes reverted to chaos.

The drawback of using piling as an organizing method is that gravity gets you if you pile too high, and the stack tumbles. You also run out of surface space when dealing with a lot of different projects. But still, there is comfort in having the information you need right at your fingertips in good old solid hardcopy.

My business partner, on the other hand, is a Filer. I believe, as a child, she may have filed her toys by size and order of preference. I know that she now has everything filed in date order or alphabetical order. Even the clothes in her closet are color coded using the color wheel. All of her work is filed either manually or electronically and she pulls it as she needs it. She is a very orderly person and enjoys being that way.

Fortunately, she also understands that different styles work for different people and organization is a very personal thing. So, she allows my piles to dominate my side of the office. For my part, I don't let too many piles clutter the work space and have become my own talented assistant in filing or discarding obsolete information.

When people with different organizing habits share space, there is fertile ground for conflict. Compromise is sometimes difficult. One of the most trying situations is created by the "Free Styler". It is hard to find rhyme or reason for the eclectic mix of papers and chotskies that litter his desk. He may proclaim that he can lay his hands on what he needs when he needs it, but he seldom can.

Early in my career, I shared an office with a "Free Styler". She filled up her space and began invading mine. I scanned the piles on my desk one morning and found papers and a coffee mug that did not belong to me. It was time for a little talk with my intrusive office mate. We resolved our differences by agreeing on how space would be used and what was off-limits. She also adopted a "box method" of organization that did not work so well, but at least kept her stuff off my desk.


Whether you are a Piler, a Filer, or a Free Styler, there are organizational tools and systems that can assist you in maintaining order in your work space and efficiency in you work life. If you are a Piler, check out the Adjust-a-File at www.Levenger.com. It allows you to pile horizontally and avoid tangling with gravity. Filers might enjoy the daily organizer at www.lillianvernon.com for filing bills awaiting payment. And even Free Stylers have a chance to design a system for themselves with components of the DAILY System at www.potterybarn.com.

At Key Transitions, we don't believe there is a perfect mess, but we do believe there are ways to make the mess perfectly manageable, whatever your individual style.

Beverly and Kristen
http://www.keytransitions.net/