Controlled Chaos

Shannon and Alan have two radically different ways of managing their desks. In the previous post, you see how Shannon's desk is in a continual state of chaos. Alan, on the other hand, prefers a more controlled chaos. With his desk, you can always tell where he is in the day by the amount of clutter.

Here is a look at how Alan's desk starts the day.



A few things scattered about, but overall everything seems to have a place. However, there is one pile of paper that has seemingly been part of the desk forever. They look important, so Alan just leaves them there. Now we observe the state of his desk right after the show.



The mess has grown a bit. The final picture is Alan's desk at about 9:30 a.m. Several projects going, and sometimes the desk is worse, all depending on the day.




You'll notice the open drawer in the far left corner of the photo. It's usually full of tapes and sometimes functions as a shelf during the day. From here, the mess begins to go in the opposite direction, until it's time to go home and the desk has returned to the state of the first photo. It's a daily process that is carried out like clockwork.