Scientists: "Physical Clutter Negatively Affects Focus, Info Processing"
Have you ever considered how clutter may affect your productivity? The study below sheds light on a simple yet elusive concept: “neatness breeds order, clutter breeds disorder.”
This indicates more than just sociological impacts like we saw in our article Creating a Culture of Cleanliness which discussed studies where broken windows and a messy phyiscal environment led to crime and other bad behavior.
In January, researchers at the Princeton University Neuroscience Institute published a report “Interactions of Top-Down and Bottom-Up Mechanisms in Human Visual Cortex” in The Journal of Neuroscience:
“The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and other physiological measurement tools to map the brain’s responses to organized and disorganized stimuli and to monitor task performance. The conclusions were strong — if you want to focus to the best of your ability and process information as effectively as possible, you need to clear the clutter from your home and work environment.
This research shows that you will be less irritable, more productive, distracted less often, and able to process information better with an uncluttered and organized home.”