HANDS:
hands
hands title:
§4. Control your space
hands date:
15 June 2022
hands text:
All is in the hands of Man.
Therefore you should wash them often.
Therefore you should wash them often.
01
Craftsmen come in all shapes and sizes. Yet, there is one feature that belongs to all, with very few exceptions: they control the space in which they operate.
02
This is how Alexey Gastev puts it: “You should not start work until all the tools and all the devices are ready. At the workplace (machinery, workbench, table, floor, ground), there should be nothing that is not needed, so that you do not flounder around, fuss, or search for the necessary among the unnecessary. All tools and devices should be laid out in a specific order – preferably, established once and for all – so that you can find all you need without thinking.”
03
There is good empirical and scientific evidence why this is true.
04
It turns out that for most organizations physical workspace is the second-largest expense. Google's $1 billion UK headquarters is a good example. Why so? There is an overall consensus among neuroscientists that, from a cognitive perspective, humans are telescopes: we are simply not capable of doing two things simultaneously. To do things well, we must focus on one task at a time.
05
Research tells us that multitasking, in effect, is a form of self-deception. When we think that we do two tasks at a time, our brain doesn't actually multitask. Instead, it rapidly switches back and forth between the tasks. This constant switching makes us far less perceptive and far more prone to errors. Russell Poldrack, a neuroscientist from Stanford University, found that distractions cause the information to go to the wrong part of the brain, making it harder to retrieve when you need it. His research seems to suggest that this is seriously bad for the brain.
06
Trying to work in an unorganized space turns an easy task into a difficult one, and a difficult one into a disaster. From a craftsman’s perspective, this starts a vicious circle: a silly mistake while performing a simple task kills confidence, thereby turning an accidental failure into a systemic problem.
07
In our experience, a good pointer to recognise a master, before they even begin to work, is to pay attention to how they prepare the site, the way they lay out the tools, the way they look.
08
Let’s be clear, we are not suggesting that organizing your space will guarantee success. Yet, the opposite is true: if a workman is dirty like a pig and their tools are all over the place, then they are heading to a disaster.