What the state of your desk says about you

Whether you are a clean freak or a slob, your workspace may reveal a lot about your personality.

Do you have trouble locating your computer screen amid the jungle of old coffee mugs and scattered papers? Or is your workspace a minimalist's dream?

Every office worker has a particular type of desk they keep, and a number of studies suggest that how you keep your workspace might affect how you work, from the idea that disorderly environments produce creativity - to the idea that too much clutter can interfere with focus.

Deliberately or not, we're constantly making statements about ourselves through our personal presentation, says Sam Gosling, professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, and author of the book Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About you.

"One of the reasons physical spaces, including one's office desks, can be so revealing is that they're essentially the crystallisation of a lot of behaviour over time," he says.

Lily Bernheimer, an environmental psychology consultant and director at UK-based Space Works Consulting developed five personality desk types for UK co-working company Headspace Group, drawing on the work of Gosling and other personality and environmental psychologists.

A research fellow at the University of Surrey in the UK, Bernheimer came up with an evidence-based breakdown that combined insights from personality research, environmental psychology and 'big five' personality traits: extroversion; agreeableness; conscientiousness; neuroticism and openness to experience.

So, what does your desk space say about your personality?

What does your workspace look like?

Send us your desk photos and we'll feature the best on our Facebook page next week.

The clutterer

The clutterer's workspace is chaotic, colourful and often covered in knick-knacks and personal effects. Bernheimer says clutterers tend to be more extroverted and welcoming of colleagues.

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