Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter

More Jigsaw Puzzle Wisdom

Though I can feel spring coming, it’s not here yet, and these late winter months are a perfect time for jigsaw puzzles. I’ve written about how much I love jigsaw puzzles, and how they have so many lessons for us. Now that I’ve been at it again, I see they have more to teach about order.

Structure: I always talk to clients about structure and scaffolding. What’s the first thing most people do when they sit down with a puzzle? They find all the straight edges and build the border: Voila, structure! It’s not that different with paper. Think of a file cabinet, filing categories or folders as your structure. Now, you just have to figure out how all those papers, or pieces, fit in.

Organizing: Often, as I’m looking for that one little blue piece with a dot of red, I end up sorting lots of other pieces. I put all the green-and-white striped pieces together for when I get to the awning section and gather all those black ones with the white lines in a pile for when I work on the building. I’m not connecting them, but I am sorting and organizing as I go. The same is true as I work through your sock drawer separating athletic socks from trouser socks. I might find a few pairs of long underwear and a random tank top or two, so I set them aside for when we get to the drawer where they belong. And I’ll put the tank tops in a different pile from the long underwear, because why sort twice? That way, when I get to the tank top drawer (or the awning) I’m ahead.

Patterns: Remember when I wrote about how just stepping outside triggers our brains to switch on our peripheral vision, which automatically reduces anxiety? Well, I’m no neuroscientist, but I feel like something similar (if opposite) happens when I sit down to do a jigsaw puzzle. At first it just looks like a mess of color and pattern, and then I start to see bricks, or tweed, or clouds. As I get more focused, I see that some bricks are orange, but others are more red. It takes me to a place of deep focus that’s relaxing because it’s totally absorbing. The same thing happens when I’m in your kitchen junk drawer: At first it seems random, and then I that there are groups of things—take-out menus, five different kinds of tape, rubber bands—and pretty soon, I’ve made order out of chaos.

Obviously, making order out of chaos is pretty much my favorite thing, so when you aren’t keeping me busy, I’ll do a jigsaw puzzle to get my fix. Next time you’re faced with something that looks like a random mess, don’t despair. Think of it as a puzzle, and before you know it you’ll be completely absorbed in setting it to rights.