The Rules of People

RULE 2

No one has to be like you

I used to sit next to someone at work who liked their desk to be unnecessarily, pointlessly, excruciatingly tidy. That’s how I saw it anyway. All the files lined up, neat little coaster to put a coffee mug down on, every pen and hole puncher and paperclip exactly in place. It followed through to the way he worked too. Everything had to be filed the instant he finished using it, all notes had to be made in the right colour pen, every email colour-coded and archived, detailed to-do lists all marked with codes to indicate priority, urgency and importance.

It drove me mad. He couldn’t do anything impulsively, or change direction in the middle of a task, or be spontaneous about following up ideas. Or cope with me ...