These 10 Workspaces of Great Minds Will Make You Rearrange Your Desk

These 10 Workspaces of Great Minds Will Make You Rearrange Your DeskThese 10 Workspaces of Great Minds Will Make You Rearrange Your DeskWe all need a healthy dose of inspiration from time to time. By looking up to great thinkers and trying to get a glimpse of their personal life, we want to see what they do differently and figure out what could be our own key to success. Research has shown that people in messy rooms are quicker at solving creative problems than those in tidy rooms. But our common sense seems to argue exactly the opposite - if someone fails to clean up the clutter from his desk, can he keep his mind sharp and focused?Many famous inventors and pioneers differed in their view on the orderliness. So why dont wetake a closer look attheir workspaces to discover the peculiarities of some of the greatest thought leaders in history?Lets see what their offices and desks can tell us1. Steve Jobs started from the scratchansehen courtesy of Thing BigThis visionary mind has turne d the world of computers upside down. But only few people know that Jobs welches living a single and simple life when he was starting to work on the first Macintosh computer. This period of his life was instrumental for determining the characteristic simplicity of all Apple products.From the following photograph taken at his apartment, you can only guess where the minimalist functionality of all Apple products came from. As Jobs himself remarked, all you needed was a cup of tea, a light, and your stereo, you know, and thats what I had.Bringing it mora up-to-date, Steve Jobs workplace was, ironically, one big mess. Succeeding in decluttering our desks more than any other product designer, Jobs seemed to be quite happy to wallow in a bit of chaos. His desk was one with plenty of documents and the shelves in his home office were just heaving with booksImage courtesy of Pinterest2. Elon Musk likes camping in his officeTeslas making history and its mastermind leaves nothing to chance (se ethisto learn how to get a job there). When the new Model X went into production, Elon Musk made a decision to move his desk to the end of the production line. Spending hundreds of hours a week at work, no wonder he brought a sleeping bag to his office and put it right next to his desk.Image courtesy of Business InsiderOn the other flosse, Musks desk at SpaceX looks fairly ordinary (check this to see how to get a job there). It reflects his highly disciplined work schedule which is broken up into 5-minutes-long blocks of intense work. So instead of procrastinating and cluttering his workspace with memorabilia of the past, his mind is focused on the future.3. MarkZuckerbergsworld of equalityThe way you think about work environment communicates your values to the outside world. The setup of the new facebook incs headquarters reflects Mark Zuckerbergs belief that an open floor plan where people work close to each other enables better communication and collaboration among employees. If you just fell in love with the idea, heres a detailed guidehow to get a job at Facebook.Image courtesy of IndependentConsistent with his normcore fashion style, Facebooks CEO also keeps his workspace simple. In his live video tour of Facebooks new headquarters, Zuckerberg explains that he doesnt have an office for himself. Instead, he works from the same kind of desk as every other Facebook employee.There are just few things on Zucks desk. A laptop, a pile of books from his Year of Books challenge, and amodel of the companys visionary project- a satellite that Facebooks working on at the moment to spread the Internet to all corners of the world. Good luckImage courtesy of Pinterest4. Albert Einstein, the staunch advocate of a messy deskThe genius physicist is one of the greatest minds of the 20th century and greatest advocates of a messy desk at the same time. He stood up for us, the eternal chaos makers, and comforted our restless souls by this well-known prozentzahl If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, then what are we think of an empty desk?According to Einstein, a messy desk is a productive desk. Creative minds tend to be a bit light on the housework and he considered that completely normal. Thanks to a photograph by LIFE magazines Ralph Morse, we can observe what a messy desk meant for the genius himselfImage courtesy of Big thinkEinsteins iconic desk is untouched and left exactly as it was on the day he died in 1955. Books and sheets of paper everywhere and a blackboard full of notes behind his back. Fairly impressive.5. Keep calm and Nikola TeslaImage courtesy of Wikimedia CommonsThis surreal photograph of a supercharged magnifying transmitter was shot in 1899 and immediately entered history. It was taken inside Teslas lab in Colorado Springs but its sensational appearance is a result of smart editing that we now call post-production. Tesla knew too well that to sit there would be to lose his life. The photo was taken by Dickenson V. Alley as part of a promotional stunt. The inclusion of Tesla hanging out in his chair was possible only through double exposure.To create the photo, Alley took two photos and merged them together. He first photographed the machines massive sparks in a darkened room. Only after the machine was off could he invite Tesla to pose in the chair for the second photo. No worries, Tesla was no liar and admitted that the photo was photoshopped soon afterwards. But its fame spread in the speed of light. Great piece of marketing, Nikola6. They say that NASA scientists like to partyImage courtesy of BoredpandaJust look at this incomprehensible (at least to us) board of calculations being occupied by elite NASA scientists in 1961. This is how they did it the old school way. The age before computers. Nope, not even calculators existed back then.The photo, taken by J. R. Eyerman for LIFE magazine, does indeed look very scientific and impressive. But as a mathematician would point out, there are just a c ouple of general equations of motion and no calculations on the board. The scene was certainly staged, but why didnt they use some real badass math? Back in the Space Race era, NASA would be a fool to publish anything other than generic equations in LIFE magazine. But the situation in the photo might actually resemble what the scientists work used to look like - just with more constructive things written on the board.One of the things NASA was known for were so-called math parties where prominent scientists would gather and each of them would master one part of the equation. So geeky7. Stephen Hawkings chase of the invisibleImage courtesy of LivescienceThis shot captures the desk of the late theoretical physicist at the University of Cambridge back in 2012. The photo was commissioned as a photographic portrait to celebrate Stephen Hawkings 70th birthday. However, this isnt exactly how Hawking would normally arrange his things. Various items and oddities that he had in his office we re moved into view. This was done in order to give you a glimpse inside one the greatest minds of modern science.Take the plastic action figure with the helicopter top, for example. Its Hawking as he appeared in an episode of The Simpsons. Other curiosities include a statue of the pope, a little toy computer with sticky notes, a space shuttle model. But one of the thingson the desk characterises the life and work of the quadriplegic genius more than anything else. Its the little crystal globe with a quote by Saint-Exupery that sums up the struggle and strife of any theoretical physicist What is essential is invisible to the eye.8. Mr Edison, its time to wake upImage courtesy of Wikimedia CommonsThe photo shows the prolific inventor and businessman dictating instructions to an employee on his dictating machine in 1929. Though best known for his invention of the phonograph and incandescent electric light, Edison had 1,093 US patents in his names in a variety of fields.But not many peo ple know Edison was also a renowned catnapper. While looking pretty busy at his desk, he was likely to doze off on various pieces of furniture in his lab. Thomas Edisons desk was full of cubbyholes - small holding places for the stream of ideas in his mind for future inventions and current business. The piles of papers and projects around him were only a reflection of the ever-expanding questions in his mind.9. Giant black desk of Angela MerkelRarely giving any interviews and sleeping only 4 hours a day, Merkel may seem like a recluse. But serving as Chancellor of Germany since 2005, she is thede factoleader of European Union and, and as many would claim, the most powerful woman in the worldBut still theres still something peculiar Merkel needs to deal with every single time she comes to work. Its her desk.Chancellor revealed she doesnt like the giant black desk she inherited from her predecessor Gerhard Schrder, preferring to work at the small writing-table in front of it. HeresMe rkel sitting at the four-metre-long desk in the Federal ChancelleryCourtesy of Manager MagazinBy the way, guess whos the man looking constantly over Merkels shoulder.Nope, thats not her husband. Its a rather cool portrait of Konrad Adenauer, West Germanys first post-war leader.And what about that desktop world globe? Undoubtedly, theres just one way to read it- as a symbol ofChancellors motherly concern for each and every country on the planet.Natrlich10. Wheres the button?We have gone to great lengths looking for someone whod challenge Albert Einsteins rhetorical question about an empty desk. The following picture shows if not one of the greatest, then one of the most influential minds of the 21st century.Image courtesy of CNBCDonald Trumps shiny Oval Office desktop tries hard to convince us his mind is far from cluttered. In fact, theres nothing on the famous Resolute desk but a telephone, a coaster, a black marker and a wooden box. But where is the red nuclear button, so much big ger than Kim Jong-uns? No one knows, and we all hope the president doesnt either.These workspaces of great minds can be an inspirationDifferent strokes for different folks, right? Some people feel better sitting behind a clean and tidy desk. Others like to be surrounded by huge piles of books and documents. Whatever the preferred setup, it always seems to reflect the mindset and current pursuits of a given person.Workspace design is a matter of choice that should suit your ways of working. Through all the activities we have during the day, our desk is where we store our most important documents and tools and where we get most of our work done. Leave nothing to chance and arrange your desk the way you like it. Keep useful items at hand and get rid of all unnecessary stuff occupying your workplace. Get ready for the flow of new ideas and watch your personal success story unfold.Searching for a new workplace? Clean up your desk and check outThe Jobseekers Guide To the Galaxy - our ult imate guide to job hunting.Share Your Feedback or Ideas in the Comments