Earlier today on Twitter, I was asked what my desk looked like, specifically, the relative messiness or neatness of it:

Hey @jamietr – what does your desk look like? Why You Should have a Messy Desk/Medium http://t.co/nSOcY4S6ww #busybuildingthings

— MarcTHollander (@marcthollander) October 17, 2013

When I got home from work, I snapped this photo, which captures the state of my desk as of late afternoon, Thursday, October 17, 2013:

A few observations:

1. My desk is quite messy at the moment. In my experience, the more cluttered my own desk is, the busier I happen to be. The reason is pretty straight-forward: when I am busy working on writing projects and other things, decluttering my desk gets a low priority.
2. There is paper on my desk! Mostly this is stuff that I haven’t gotten around to scanning in yet. See #1 above. Besides, as much as I would like to be paperless, there is a world out there pushing paper on me.
3. Careful observers will note that my 2013 John Picacio calendar is still showing September. See my reasoning in #1 above.

So, is your desk cluttered or clear at the moment?