If you're lucky, summer gives you time to breathe.

Maybe go on vacation, slow down.

You finally have a chance to get to that long list of things you've been putting off.

Books to read, exercise, spending some time on yourself.

The episode you're about to hear is part of our summer series about rebooting and reimagining our lives.

We're calling it U2.0.

This week we bring your conversation from the fall of 2016.

It explores the idea that the chaos of your regular life might have some secret benefits.

If you're a parent, you've probably told your kids a thousand times, your room is a mess, clean it up.

We hear the same message in other contexts, managers at companies around the world tell their employees to get organized.

Here in the United States, we elect presidents to go clean up Washington.

This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedantam.

My guest today has a radical idea.

In many cases he says, it's disorder rather than order, that's our friend.

Tim Hartford is the author of Messy, the power of disorder to transform our lives.

He joined us recently for a live taping just blocks from the White House at NPR's Weekend in Washington.

It's an annual event that brings together public radio fans and supporters.

Tim Hartford, welcome to Hidden Brain.

Thank you very much, Shankar.

You want to begin by playing your piece of music, Tim.

How did that piece of music come about?

What's the story?

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