my kind of book

The following is borrowed shamelessly from the St. Petersburg Times and the Associated Press:

There's a new book out about messy homes, offices, and lives, just in time for New Year's. The message is, stop worrying about it!

That's the case outlined by Eric Abrahamson, a professor of management at Columbia University, and journalist David H. Freedman in their new book, A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder.

Rather than feeling guilty about resolutions you have no intention of keeping, check out this list of New Year's anti-resolutions suggested by Freedman, also a columnist at Inc. magazine.

[condensed version follows]

- Feel fine about having a moderately cluttered house. A moderately messy home feels warmer, and more comfortable and nurturing, and reflects the interests and activities of the family. When people resonding to a survey calculated the amount of time they spent searching for misplaced items, it carved a mere nine minutes from their day.

- Feel fine about having a somewhat dirty house. Overexposure to fumes from cleaning products is a bigger risk than clutter or grime. Studies have found that children with limited exposure to dust and allergens are more likely to develop allergies later in life.

- Be more disorganized with your time. If you pack many rigidly scheduled tasks into the day, you'll shortchange almost everyone you deal with.

[here's my favorite]
- Have a messy desk. "Messy desks can be highly functional, with the most-needed documents ending up at hand and the less-important ones buried. People who said they keep a 'very neat desk' spend an average of 36 percent more time looking for things at work than people who said they keep a 'fairly messy' desk."

- Don't fight with partners or children over messiness. Studies have shown that kids study and function very well in messy environments.

[and here's my second favorite]
- Procrastinate more. "Procrastination is a form of prioritizing, and of letting as many things as possible take care of themselves or become irrelevant over time, without your having to waste effort on them."

I could buy this book but it would get lost in the clutter. I'll wait until the public library gets a recorded copy on CDs that I can play in my car going to and from work.