When I need to clear my head I tidy loose ends. I sort and stack, file and refile, move furniture, wash, fold, renovate and repair.
Sounds like avoidance, but actually it’s like the external work is doing internal work on my mind. It is a process of sorting, prioritising and turning creative piles into manageable, streamlined tasks.
Is this why Agatha Christie reportedly said ‘the best time to plan a book is whilst doing the dishes’? How do you best ready your mind for clear thinking and writing action? Mind you I also like to think of what to put into books whilst walking, gardening and running away from housework too! I think without some clutter what creative piles can you draw upon.
The last two weeks I have been tidying up old blogs. Finding fresh new templates and redesigning the way you enter the blog Ripple Poetry and reopening World Citizen Dreaming (still working on that one.)
I’ve created journey blogs for my projects, starting a series called Journey of a Book for a poetry and story book which is well on the way! But also creating a blog for a book close to the bone, Smile Within, a photo book for family, friends and community.
I’ve found old digital notebooks and begun editing poems and stories, which by sitting and hibernating, or is it marinating, have become so much easier to edit. I’ve found several competitions and journal submissions to work on whilst I do my larger projects, but listed them in order of due dates and made a real resolve to do them!
The upside of this process has been finding things – a missing battery charger, a much needed xray, and stashes of stuff to work into fully blown projects. The next challenge is to stick with the plan, but be flexible enough to know when to change it, and to keep it uncluttered.
Gumboootspearlz 
What a great way of looking at those types of tasks! I have come to realize that I am greatly impacted by my environment. So do I really not have time to do art or is it really because my art room is such a disasterous mess?!
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I do swing between clutter and decluttering, but post cyclone it felt so good to declutter and not be attached to as much stuff!
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I’m always doing this. My mind’s a mess, but the garage is getting sorted and while I am doing it, stuff floats up from the mental basement and sorts out that mess too. Besides, I cannot work in clutter – it’s too distracting. If I clear away old notebooks and bits of projects, I can focus better on what I want to do now.
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I also find lost things when I sort, which makes me feel so much better Gail. Especially after our cyclone moves we lost so much order it has taken AGES to get back into order.
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