How Messy is Your Desk?

This morning as I was trying to decide what to write about, I couldn't help but notice the pile my husband had created on the center table in our office by cleaning off his desk. It looked like something from the garbage dump. I took a quick look at my own desk. Work from yesterday still sat across the surface; a can of salted cashews in halves and pieces and a container of Velvet Tuberose lotion glared over at me.

Photo by: msTea, courtesy of Flickr. No, this is not my desk, but you can see what I mean.

A finished ghostwritten manuscript sat on the right side of the desk, the opposite side held my calendar and the marketing work I was currently working on for my newest books. There were pens, a hand sanitizer container, small speakers, a stapler, a three holed puncher, paper clips and a stack of stuff unorganized sitting on the desk's back right corner.

Everything was (more or less) organized, still the desk resembled more of a jungle journey and less of a writer's desk. Or did it?

Isn't it true that the true creative types have a messy streak? Isn't it true that to be truly creative you have to have lots of stuff scattered around where only you know the system? Well, if this is true, I must be fairly creative. But it made me think about my writing life, and if there was a way I could streamline it to make my time more effective.

I love binders, I love holding my stuff in them, but what if I held more information on my computer laptop? What if I went through all junk mail the day it came in and sorted through and filed the good stuff the moment after I'd finished reading it? Would time be saved if my desk was free of accumulations?

I don't really know, but I'd like to think so. It's sort of like cleaning the living room so that it looks nice and so that people don't trip over shoes in the walkway. It's sort of like sunshine coming through the window because you've cleaned it.

And a writer needs that.