I might work in one of the biggest cities in the United States but you can do great work anywhere. 

I love that it’s getting easier to work wherever and whenever. Whether you’re in Nebraska, in the rain forests of South America or on an island; it doesn’t matter where you are, it only matters what you create. And I’ve taken this to heart from the very first day I started LooseKeys. We might work in one of the biggest cities in the United States but we don’t need a fancy office downtown with an amazing view of the city to do our work. It might be nice but it’s not something I see us needing.

Heck most of the time those windows are closed anyway, right? 

I can create quality work from anywhere, while working from home, at a coffee shop or renting a desk at an incubator. Just give me a power outlet, an internet connection and some sort of surface to work on and I’m there working. The clients who are interested in LooseKeys don’t care about where the work was done, all they care about is a quality product that is going to help them grow. Most of them will never meet me or see where I work, so really what’s that fancy office for?

We spend our time making sure the product we’re sending out into the world is as good as we can make it. To me I don’t think the location has much to do with the work that you can create. Whether you’re a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond, focus on making great work and don’t worry about where you’re located or the space you create in. 

Most of the time my desk is a mess. Storyboards and notes are all over the place, spilling onto the floor. I’m alright with my messy desk especially when I’m going full throttle on projects. I do love that satisfying feeling of tossing out the storyboards and tidying up the desk when a project ends; creating that clean slate after its all over. This past week I had two projects that finished up so I figured it was time to clean up the mess. Over the weekend I took the time to clean up the desk and toss out random sticky notes I’d been scribbling on for the the last couple weeks. As well as making sure all the invoices were prepared and mailed out. I was shocked at how much stuff I had accumulated. Having a clean and tidy desk definitely makes you feel refreshed and ready for something new. The clutter is now removed, ready for a fresh start this week.

Interruptions at work are going to happen and no matter how many ways you may attempt to reduce them they all can’t be stopped. They come in the form of a phone call, e-mail, instant message, twitter, facebook, a game of ping pong or someone hovering over your desk and asking ‘If you can take quick look at something.’ As a result of all these interruptions it seems like more and more people are working longer and stranger hours. But I don’t think it’s because there is more work to get done rather its having to make up for not getting work done at work. You may reduce some of these interruptions by coming into work an hour early or taking lunch at 1 pm instead of at noon with everyone else. But this only reduces the interruptions from other people. This isn’t a post about how to minimize interruptions, there are hundreds of them on the web. Instead I say work with the interruptions. I’m the kind of person that probably should of been diagnosed with ADD, I’m constantly jumping from one idea to the next. I’m just not wired to focus on one task for long stretches of time. I need interruptions to be able to get what I need to do accomplished. Although the idea of task-switching has shown to have a negative effect on concentration…

In a recent study, a group of Microsoft workers took, on average 15 minutes to return to serious mental tasks, like writing reports or computer code, after responding to incoming e-mail or instant messages. They strayed off to reply to other messages or browse news, sports or entertainment Web sites. (NYT)

Right there the New York Times is telling us that focused creative work and interruptions just don’t mix. But what I’ve found is that it makes me work with more focus for those brief points of time. An example of this, is when I was working on this post I was also chatting on Instant Messenger. If I’d get stuck on a sentence or word so I’d just jump over to IM and talk with whomever for a moment, just taking that break from writing allowed me to think about what I wanted to say. It’s these sort of micro breaks that allow me to actually stay creative and focused as strange as that may sound. It’s very easy to get sucked into a compulsive state of mind while working at the computer, which can lead to mental tension. That’s why I think I welcome interruptions; without them I may have a mental breakdown. Bring on the phone calls, the emails and twitter updates. They go wonderful with my cluttered desk.

Piles of papers, vinyl toys, coffee cups, business cards, bills, headphones, and more piles of papers is the war zone that is my desk. I’ve tried but there is no way I can keep my work area clean. I get that itch once and awhile to clean it up and start fresh but its always back to the mess by the end of the day. There are tons of sites like unclutterer and Zen Habits that talk about saving time by cleaning up your work area and by being more organized. I read these sites every once and awhile and they make me feel guilty for not being totally organized and having a bin and/or file for everything. No more! I have accepted that this is how I work and I’m more productive this way. In the book “A Perfect Mess,” Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman say “Neatness and organization can exact a high price and it’s widely unaccounted for.” They argue that a messy desk can be a product of an effective worker. Einstein purposed the question, “If a cluttered desk signs a cluttered mind, Of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”

I had always heard that a messy desk is a sign of being busy, well if you have seen my desk at Daily Planet ltd. or at home you would wonder if I ever sleep. I’ll admit that in the past I’ve mis-placed things in the chaos but I’m someone that works on several projects at the same time and I like to have my notes for that project along with magazines and books for inspiration at my finger tips. I read that Barack Obama was asked his biggest weakness by a reporter and he said that it would have to be his messy desk. Einstein and Obama both worked with messy desks; at least I am in good company.

100% organization doesn’t work for me, I personally don’t want to have to go to the filing cabinet or bookshelf to find what I need that very moment. There’s also a kind of feeling of freedom about it; I don’t have to make sure things are put away before I can leave the office for the day. I can jump up and rush out of the office or house at a moments notice and not have to think about the mess I left behind. I do tidy up when a project is done, you won’t find information about a project I was working on six months ago. Everything on my desk is relevant and has a purpose. Whether a messy desk is a sign of genius, creativity, or just a busy person, it doesn’t matter so much to me. Even if my desk at times can be not very aesthetically pleasing, its how I’m most productive and that’s the bottom line.

Piles of papers, vinyl toys, coffee cups, business cards, bills, headphones, and more piles of papers is the war zone that is my desk. I’ve tried but there is no way I can keep my work area clean. I get that itch once and awhile to clean it up and start fresh but its always back to the mess by the end of the day. There are tons of sites like unclutterer and Zen Habits that talk about saving time by cleaning up your work area and by being more organized. I read these sites every once and awhile and they make me feel guilty for not being totally organized and having a bin and/or file for everything. No more! I have accepted that this is how I work and I’m more productive this way. In the book “A Perfect Mess,” Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman say “Neatness and organization can exact a high price and it’s widely unaccounted for.” They argue that a messy desk can be a product of an effective worker. Einstein purposed the question, “If a cluttered desk signs a cluttered mind, Of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”

I had always heard that a messy desk is a sign of being busy, well if you have seen my desk at Daily Planet ltd. or at home you would wonder if I ever sleep. I’ll admit that in the past I’ve mis-placed things in the chaos but I’m someone that works on several projects at the same time and I like to have my notes for that project along with magazines and books for inspiration at my finger tips. I read that Barack Obama was asked his biggest weakness by a reporter and he said that it would have to be his messy desk. Einstein and Obama both worked with messy desks; at least I am in good company.

100% organization doesn’t work for me, I personally don’t want to have to go to the filing cabinet or bookshelf to find what I need that very moment. There’s also a kind of feeling of freedom about it; I don’t have to make sure things are put away before I can leave the office for the day. I can jump up and rush out of the office or house at a moments notice and not have to think about the mess I left behind. I do tidy up when a project is done, you won’t find information about a project I was working on six months ago. Everything on my desk is relevant and has a purpose. Whether a messy desk is a sign of genius, creativity, or just a busy person, it doesn’t matter so much to me. Even if my desk at times can be not very aesthetically pleasing, its how I’m most productive and that’s the bottom line.