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Mental fog, for me, is a physical symptom of stress and exhaustion. It has nothing to do with having a clean workspace. The first sentence of the article is "m

Mental fog, for me, is a physical symptom of stress and exhaustion. It has nothing to do with having a clean workspace. The first sentence of the article is "mess creates stress". I don't see a contradiction. It could be that article is wrong, but I have heard many people express that sentiment. If you have evidence that it's not true, I would like to see it.

Brian_K_White 6y ago
The rest of that same article says in several different ways that stress is necessary stimulation. So much for that. There have been observational studies (vs plain declarative opinion pieces like this one) that correlate clutter with intelligence, creativity, and productivity. The mechanism probably doesn't work the same way for everyone, and so clutter probably isn't good for everyone, but that also means it isn't wrong for everyone either. So much for that. The article is essentially garbage.
manmal 6y ago
I think you‘ll find a hundred other things more stressful than a messy environment. Fighting with the partner, illness of a relative, someone yelled at me on the street, I slept too little,...
- malux85 6y ago
  Saying "x is more stressful than y" does not negate that y creates stress
  - hanniabu 6y ago
    It creates stress, but an insignificant amount compared to everything else in your life.
  - manmal 6y ago
    We have limited time available each day, so it’s prudent to focus on solving the most stressful factors first.
felipemnoa 6y ago
>>"mess creates stress" Everybody is different. Some people enjoy working in a messy room. I guess everybody is crazy in a different way.
underwater 6y ago
Sure, tidying your workspace might help. But how much? How could I take a methodical approach to tackling this problem? I'd like to actually see some data, or at least a dive into the underlying causes of brain fog. This is Hacker News after all.
- tartoran 6y ago
  To some extent so that is worth making it a habit, makes everything easier on yourself and saves a lot of mental energy that in a stressful situation a surplus extra energy could help. I think that tiding one’s workspace also abstractly hints toward tiding one’s life which you probably agree is a good thing.

Brian_K_White 6y ago

The rest of that same article says in several different ways that stress is necessary stimulation. So much for that. There have been observational studies (vs plain declarative opinion pieces like this one) that correlate clutter with intelligence, creativity, and productivity. The mechanism probably doesn't work the same way for everyone, and so clutter probably isn't good for everyone, but that also means it isn't wrong for everyone either. So much for that. The article is essentially garbage.

manmal 6y ago

I think you‘ll find a hundred other things more stressful than a messy environment. Fighting with the partner, illness of a relative, someone yelled at me on the street, I slept too little,...

malux85 6y ago
Saying "x is more stressful than y" does not negate that y creates stress
- hanniabu 6y ago
  It creates stress, but an insignificant amount compared to everything else in your life.
- manmal 6y ago
  We have limited time available each day, so it’s prudent to focus on solving the most stressful factors first.

felipemnoa 6y ago

>>"mess creates stress" Everybody is different. Some people enjoy working in a messy room. I guess everybody is crazy in a different way.

underwater 6y ago

Sure, tidying your workspace might help. But how much? How could I take a methodical approach to tackling this problem? I'd like to actually see some data, or at least a dive into the underlying causes of brain fog. This is Hacker News after all.

tartoran 6y ago
To some extent so that is worth making it a habit, makes everything easier on yourself and saves a lot of mental energy that in a stressful situation a surplus extra energy could help. I think that tiding one’s workspace also abstractly hints toward tiding one’s life which you probably agree is a good thing.