DESKTOP

BY WALLACE CALEB BATES

There is something beautiful about a messy desktop. Not careless or lazy, just busy, full, and in motion.

A cluttered screen is a sign that work is happening. A folder named “Updated Final Version” sitting beside one called “Use This One Maybe” does not mean you are behind. It means you are thinking and building, not afraid to start before everything feels perfect.

We are taught in leadership development to stay organized, keep our space clean, file, sort, and archive. I understand the value in that, but there is also value in the mess. The cluttered desktop, covered in screenshots, drafts, and ideas, reveals that my work is evolving.

A clean desktop might mean the work is done, or it might mean it never began. A messy one means I am in the middle of it, and that matters.

So I am not embarrassed by the mess; in fact, I am proud of it. It is a record of effort, a proof of momentum. This is what progress looks like in real-time.

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