When In Doubt, Tidy Up
It’s Friday and I’ve been working on several simultaneous projects in my office all week. My type of work doesn’t allow me to sit on a laptop on some back porch overlooking paradise in some Pacific island country. No, I have equipment, from 3D printers to oscilloscopes to compound miter saws. Although I would like to vacation to some Pacific island country, I feel at home with my equipment.
Inevitably, my office turns into a disaster area. Sometimes I worry that I’ll get a government alert on my phone where FEMA has declared a state of emergency for my office. Ok, it’s not that terrible but being someone who likes order, it starts to get to me.
I’m not sure where I picked up the phrase “When In Doubt, Tidy Up,” but some quick Googling, I found that it’s attributed to musician Brian Eno. (Sidenote: his full name is Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno, I feel like that name could use some tidying.) It’s a great line and something that has stuck in my head ever since I heard it years ago.
Most of the time, when I have too much to do, I don’t know where to start or what to spend my time on. This is a struggle for me that warrants separate article but when I get discouraged or FEMA has its finger on the alert button, I remember the phrase and I start tidying up.
I start with one surface at a time and all tools, parts, loose wires, etc. go to their respective homes. I’ve organized my office to where everything has a home and that’s important, otherwise things move from one surface to another like pushing gravy around on your plate.
Always Be Knolling
Part of the problem is that I need to form better habits while I work. The famed New York City artist, Tom Sachs, is very particular about his workshop, which is detailed in his video titled 10 Bullets. Bullet 8 is something I’ve been trying to incorporate in my workflow, Always be Knolling. I actually learned this term from Mythbuster Adam Savage in his book, Every Tool’s a Hammer. The history of the term is from a janitor, Andrew Kromelow, that used to organize the tools that were left out in Frank Gehry’s furniture shop.
How to Knoll, according to Tom Sachs:
Scan your environment for materials, tools, books, music, etc. which are not in use.
Put away everything not in use. If you aren’t sure, leave it out.
Group all like objects.
Align or square all objects to either the surface they rest on, or the studio itself.
Simple and so effective. I love that there are people like Tom Sachs that think about these things, document it, and share their ideas with everyone else. I’ve done this a few times recently and it does feel right when I knoll. I think the most important rule is leaving things out. There tends to always be an “active” project on my bench and if I put everything away everyday and then have to take it out again the next day, that wouldn’t be very efficient. Knolling checks the box of keeping things organized while maximizing the efficiency of still having everything you need for the project in front of you.
Drawers are where things go to die
Another lesson I really took to heart from Savage’s book was his idea of “First Order Retrievability.” In my effort to always maximize efficiency, this concept is one I subscribe to. The idea is simple: you should never have to move one tool to get to another. That in turn affords the fastest, most efficient way of working. Drawers are where things go to die and I wholeheartedly believe that. A workshop shouldn’t be some kind of clean room scenario, it should be a place of hyper focused work where nothing gets in the way of the work.
I’ve promised myself that I would get better at putting things away, knolling, and keeping the office/shop as efficient as I can. Smalls steps lead to big changes so if I only knoll one bench, I’m on my way to knolling all the benches. I took all these concepts I’ve been implementing during my work day and transferred them to my home. When the house is mess and I’m not sure what to do, I start to tidy up which usually leads to cleaning the entire house. I’ll leave you with one scene I always think of from Malcolm in the Middle about getting distracted, “what does it look like I’m doing?!”