What is knolling and how can it help you to to focus?
Laying things out
Ever find yourself arranging things on your desk while on a call? Do you like to take all the screws and bolts out of an IKEA flatpack, and arrange them on the floor before you get started? Laying things out like this calms me down, a lot, and apparently it has a name - knolling.
"Knolling refers to the practice of arranging similar objects in a precise, perpendicular manner. The goal of knolling is to create a sense of order and clarity in a space by aligning and organizing the objects within it"
I first came across this term via Adam Savage, of Mythbusters fame. Thanks to the wonders of the modern world, you can actually see him working away in his shop[1], and it is organised.
So a big part of it is laying things out in a pleasing and orderly way. But it's not just about having a neat result. For me, it's more about the process, picking things up and putting them down. It gives you a connection to the work, it's no longer some unknown jumble of uncertainty.
Things have a place, and their place is obvious.
The Tactile Connection
I think this is the key part of why it's so calming, particularly when you are dealing with something complicated, with lots of moving parts. You get a tactile connection to it, moving it around, a half an inch this way, and then back.
Now, I don't know if it's just me, and I'm on some kind of neurodivergent spectrum, but this really helps get me back into the flow of things, and avoid feeling stressed or overwhelmed.
It's something that I find myself doing all the time now in Loose Thought, arranging things for clarity, and then nudging them around.
This contact also helps drill things into your memory, laying things out in a pleasing way, and then pulling back to take it all in. If you can remember one of the things, you can usually remember what was next to it, or above it. You can almost reconstruct it from your memory later on.
Digital Tools Should Feel Real
This is something I think is missing from most digital tools, and why it's always so relaxing to return to pen and paper. Arranging sticky notes on a wall, or placing index cards on a table, isn't just some prioritization exercise, it's about exploring the ideas, getting a feel for them.
So, when I started building Loose Thought, I asked - how can I get that same feeling? How can I get the best of both worlds. All the advantages of digital tooling without losing this tactile feel.
It's why cards in Loose Thought bump into each other, push each other out of the way. They are designed to be nudged around. Images are fixed sizes so that it's easy to make pleasing arrangements.
For me, that tactile and visual feedback really deepens your connection with the material. When you can feel ideas slotting into their place, it feels more like a home for your thoughts.
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The dozens of racks of compartmentalized screw containers are quite impressive, but the sheer array of specialized tools, for every conceivable operation, is always interesting. ↩︎