I sure picked an odd time of year to try to get organized. Things are hectic at my house. New cat, old dog, two kids, and presents, indoor trees, parties, baking, client schedules and deadlines, homework, vacation plans. So why in the world would I choose the hectic month of December to get organized? Call me crazy. Just make sure if you call, you leave a detailed message so I don’t have to try and find your phone number. Because I have no idea where my address book is.
What I discovered about my own creativity: it completely evaporates if my environment is disorganized. I’m embarrassed to admit, I have four piles of papers, magazines, trade journals, and articles to dig through, sitting on my bedroom floor. Crikey, I’ve turned into that crazy cat lady. Stock piles of information and things to sift through while I let every day business take over and I begin to feel like a failure. Disorganized, ill-informed, and I never did get to creating that holiday cookbook for my family. Worse, I never got through the last two issues of Vanity Fair and my subscription to Oprah (the magazine) is stacking up in the corner. I did bookmark some cool recipes in Family Circle, but I didn’t exactly get them copied or cooked for Thanksgiving. What’s happened to me?
Life took over. I had clients to attract, which created work that actually needed to get done, which produced income, which I had to spend. A simple cycle of do what needs to get done first. Which explains why I waited until 10 days before Christmas to put the gosh darn tree up, much to the chagrin of my anxious children. But honestly, what I’ve learned in the last 6 weeks is that I cannot create, write, or even function properly in a cluttered environment.
So I tuned into organization expert, Peter Walsh (he’s on XM radio), and decided he was right. The clutter did make my butt look fat. It made me feel doomy, gloomy, and uninspired. One pile at a time. Actually one pile per day.
I devoted 60 minutes to my organization quest and found that in small bites, I could eliminate clutter and find a new home for my research material: only two choices and they were the recycle bin or the project binder. I did not allow myself to create sub-piles or new piles. My goal was to touch each piece of paper, read it, comprehend it, and determine where it belonged. And the answer was always the same: not on the bedroom floor in piles!
My holiday wish for you: make some time, sort through the clutter, and improve your space. You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish when you’re not surrounded by stifled energy and old junk. Look at me, my kids actually get a Christmas tree this year. That is, if the cat will quit trying to chew it into little pieces.
Tags: creativity, eliminate clutter, get organized, holiday season, organization
