First of all – no that photo is not of my office!! 
But us creative types can tend to be pretty messy people, right?
Perhaps you are one of the ‘clean ones’? I know they exist, because I think the link between music and mathematics makes some musicians very organised and precise. So there is a breed of musician/artist/creative, that are really neat and ordered.
Other musicians, and I lean toward being this way, are more of the messy ones!
For instance….we get random creative ideas for a song while we are putting away the laundry, so it sits there damp and forgotten, because we’re working on our song til late, then crashed into bed and forgot all about it!
Often my home studio gets a bit disordered, because I’d rather be getting musical ideas down, then organising my gear and paperwork.
Yesterday I finished a big tidy up and reorder of the whole room. I sat down to work today and it just felt different.
I felt more creative.
How weird is that?! That a fairly messy musician, would feel MORE creative in a tidy environment?
That is definitely how it works for me. If things are ordered and tidy, I feel like there is more brain space available for the ‘muse’. I think that’s true for a lot of us – that when our mind has to take in all the disorder in the environment we’re working in, it leaves less mental space for ideas and artistry.
Clearly sometimes that isn’t true. Many of us have written or created great art in a really messy place, at one time or another. So it’s not always true. I just have a hunch that it’s more often true than not?
In Genesis, God took chaos and created order… I think that’s significant……
How about you? Are you a tidy person, a messy person, or somewhere in between?
Do you find working in a tidy, ordered room more inspiring than a crazy, messy one?
For some of us musicians, could a habit of being more organised and well ordered, lead us to be BETTER at our art forms and creativity?
Would love to hear your thoughts!
- Vicky
Vicky, I can be very messy, but want the space where I am working to be neat and tidy…There can be a load of laundry on the dining room table waiting to be folded, But if I am in the living room working on a song the coffee table is clear accept for maybe a yellow legal pad and a pen. The glass top coffee table is dusted, floor vacumed, blinds raised to let in all possible natural light and my back to the awaiting laundry.:)
Jeri Jo I work and live the same way! I’m actually always wrestling with myself over that because I so long to be consistently tidey!
I love organization, I guess I’m one of the creative types with the link between music and mathematics (I majored in accounting and music…a mix of left brain and right brain?) but that doesn’t mean that I’m always clutter-free. I may have everything in file folders but finding that key file folder can be frustrating! And I would agree with you that creativity flows better in a clutter-free atmosphere.
It is fact that creative people look like messy. Like poets, lyricists, musicians, writer and many more. Thank God ! its not your office photo. Because of I do not think that you are so messy.
It is only you know that why you musicians often so messy. We know that creative person has many work and you have no more time to arrange your office. I think your office same look like this image.