“what do you do when you have a big project ahead of you? You clean your house. I have a big stack of papers to grade this weekend, you can be sure that my house will be clean by Monday.” So said the Prof of my Milton Class. Its true, at least for me. I have a bunch of projects on the stove, but somehow, I feel like in order to focus I need to clean my space.
“Cleaning” quickly became “re-arranging” Today. While it is certainly the case that in the process of re-arranging my space I get it cleaned in the process, for me it also means moving 1000+ books off their cases onto the floor in order to move the cases, and back again from the floor onto the cases. More work than is sensible for just a cleaning job.
But, having done all of that, it feels better. I think I have used the space better than I had before, I like being able to look at the trees from my desk, I feel that by un-cluttering my space I have cleared my head as well.
I have always been interested in the relationship between the physical space in which I live and my mental state. How well I think life is going, how productive I am (or feel), my ability to relax and rest: all of these seem to depend heavily on my living space. Often, just a re-shuffling of the stuff in my physical space is enough.
It would be interesting to study how physical space affects people’s quality of life. Is this just me, or is it a universal phenomena?
Okay, here is a poll: Is your Living space subject to frequent or periodical re-arrangement? Or, once you have put things in their places do they stay there until you move again? What are your thoughts on the relationship between physical space and perceived quality of life?
Archive for May 21st, 2005 |
Entries (RSS)