Member-only story
#156: Count Your Stuff
2 min readApr 25, 2020
March 25, 2020—The more things you own, the more taxing your workspace is on your brain, and the less energy you have leftover to spend on creativity.
I can’t see my stuff, but it’s there. I can’t see it because my subconscious brain is always hard at work organizing reality into nice, neat packages…
- Shirts, socks, and pants become pile of dirty clothes.
- Postcards, Legos, and stuffed animals become desk toys.
- HDMI cord, iPhone charger, and mic cables become wires.
And I mean, thank god for this, right? Can you imagine trying to parse each individual lettuce leaf while walking through the produce section?
We’d all be braindead by 10 am.
But the thing is, perceptual grouping isn’t magic. Every time your brain has to simplify a bunch of stuff it takes energy. And while you can’t do much about the produce section, you can simplify your workspace.
