It is a law of physics, the second law of thermodynamics: all natural processes involve an increase in entropy. That is, they lead to a system where the degree of order of the elements decreases. Translated, it is in the nature of things to tend to disorder if we do not intervene with a little effort: if we do not wash the dishes, dirty dishes will accumulate in the sink, if we do not put the books back on the shelves, piles will form on the floor, and so on. Some more some less, we all try to oppose the chaos and do well, since order is also helpful to stay in good health. Living in a house where there are too many things piled up for example can compromise the sleep: Pamela Thacher, a psychologist at St. Lawrence University in the US, has shown that the disorder in the room reduces the quality of rest and this can then translate into stress, anxiety, increasedappetite and anything that can result from disturbed sleep, including poorer cognitive performance. Data also confirmed by a survey by the US National Sleep Foundation, according to which those who do not tolerate seeing the bed unmade and make it carefully every morning have a 19 percent more chance of sleeping well (and if the sheets are always clean, rest is even better for 75 percent of respondents).
Cluttered kitchen, goodbye diet
Some time ago then Lenny Vartanian of the University of New South Wales in Sidney, Australia, demonstrated on a group of volunteers that having the kitchen cluttered with dirty plates, with pans and pots lying around and bulk food on the shelves he carries eat more and also to choose less healthy foods, for example chocolate biscuits instead of fruit. Those who find themselves in a clean and tidy kitchen resist temptation, even if they are under stress: the combination of a chaotic environment and the feeling of anxiety is fatal, and in the long run it can also lead to extra pound. If the house is in order, however, according to data collected by psychologists at the University of Los Angeles in California, anxiety, but also depression, are less likely; on the contrary, living in apartments full of stacked objects increases the production of cortisol, the stress hormone.
Exercise
Lovers of order are in general better health than those who spend their days in rooms that haven’t seen a broom or vacuum cleaner for some time: a research by Purdue University in Indianapolis has shown this on a thousand people followed for over ten years , noting that the order was directly related to the degree of physical activity and general cardiovascular health. “The confusion present in the rooms of the house was found to be a parameter for predicting the state of health better than the livability of the neighborhood,” says the author, Nicole Keith. “Spending part of the day cleaning, washing, dusting the rest is to be considered a real physical exercise, which helps to keep you active and healthy”. The reasons why a clean house without too many objects around makes us feel good, however, do not pass only from the calories spent to do the housework, but also from the innate preferences of the brain, who loves order and regularity to the point of looking for them even where they are not: we tend to see regular patterns everywhere, even in the absence of a “thread” that binds objects, and we don’t want too many things in the visual field, because we they distract and make us waste cognitive energy.
Performance cognitive
The demonstration comes from a research carried out by the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, which analyzing the brain activity of those in more or less chaotic environments with magnetic resonance has verified how order is accompanied by a greater ability to focus on what matters and better information processing. Corollary, if there are no piles of useless documents, blunt pencils and the like on the desk, we work better and are more productive, we do not postpone the most important tasks and cognitive performance gains us thanks to a more focused attention to what is really needed, rather than to the crumpled leaves beside the computer screen. There confusion around it alarms the brain, which in fact gives the signal to produce more cortisol, and the same happens if chaos is in the thoughts: Jacob Hirsh, of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, coined the term psychological entropy to indicate the “uncertain” thoughts that become more and more confused and generate anxiety.
Excess of stimuli
A chaos in the mind that is favored by the excess of stimuli we are subjected to today: according to Daniel Levitin, professor of psychology and behavioral neuroscience at McGill University in Montreal, “The load of information to which we are exposed in the last twenty-five years has quintupled and today in our free time alone we process about a hundred thousand words, the equivalent of 34 gigabytes; the brain, however, has a processing capacity of 120 bits per second, listening to another person “occupies” it 60. It means that we cannot really be multitasking, but we must also put order in our heads by giving priority to what is needed gradually really pay attention ». Making a list of tasks to take care of so as not to waste cognitive energy or setting smartphone notifications to remind us to move on to something else when it’s time to do so are therefore good methods to “clear the brain” of the disorder of thoughts, helping it to concentrate on one thing at a time and thus to work better.
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