Bro posted on his blog about some of the things his mind requests that he do for reasons purely of order. This was going to be a comment to that post but it turning out rather long.

I too have many obsessive or compulsive tendencies, but though they influence my life I try to avoid them standing in my way, which in my view is the point when it becomes a problem. Examples:

When I’m walking and I hear music I try to synchronise my paces, with the left step on the down beat.

When walking hand-in-hand I try to synchronise on the opposite foot to my partner

When walking arm-in-arm I try to synchronise on the same foot as my partner

If I have flat laces I try to tie them with no twists in.

When I enter the house I must empty my pockets and put everything in one place.

I cannot shower without washing my hair.

I had a girlfriend who couldn’t put the stereo’s volume on an odd number, it had to be even. I could sympathise, having had a similar tendency in the past. But then a number that isn’t even may still be divisible by 5, which is nice and orderly - one hand’s worth of digits, or maybe 3, which I regard as an enlightened number because where it’s tempting to think in terms of good and evil, positive and negative, we always forget passive, neutral, zero. Most dichotomies are really trichotomies… ahem, where was I… or divisible by 7, which is lucky for some, or 13 which is less lucky.

I still don’t like 11, although numbers divisible by 11 are extra cool…