January 4, 2019

So it's the first of the year, and everyone is all a-ga-ga over New Year's Resolutions and making this a better year and doing more here and doing this right there.  Right now I'm in the middle of my wonderful 13 Holy Nights (read last week's post if you'd like to learn more about this).  And more than anything, I don't like to include too much technical information or techniques this time of year, cause it's a time of year for rest.  But that doesn't mean that we stop thinking or stop everything.  So this time of year I like to do posts about inspiration, creativity and what it means to be an artist. 

I saw this very interesting post about some simple Feng Shui de-cluttering methods.  I've always tried to adhere to these non-cluttering or a more well-edited closet, stash and studio, because it truly does make for a more useful and space that is more conducive to the creative process.  I read one Feng Shui expert who explained the need for a de-cluttered work environment this way. 
 

Imagine working in your studio and when you finish, you leave everything out.  You've got this jacket you're working on and in the process of doing the front darts and seams, you are now ready to insert your patch pockets, so you put aside the front of the jacket to line and finish your patch pockets so they look really nice.  Then you look at the clock and know that if you don't stop now, that you will be at this for another 2 hours and being a school night you know that you need a good night's sleep for tomorrow's work.  So off to bed you go, leaving the studio as is.

The next time you get a chance to come into the studio, suddenly you see about 15 things that you had out that were all in order when you were in the process of doing them, but then suddenly all of them are calling out to you, "Do me," or "No, do me!" or another is saying "Hey, what about me?!" with another saying, "No do me first!"  You are literally inundated in the period of a few seconds with all the projects you had out.

Now, had you left the studio with the projects in order of where you were wanting to finish them....say your pockets were the first thing you say, and then next to them were both sides of your jackets, and then aside to them were the back pieces, and next to them were the sleeve pieces......suddenly when you walk into the room, instantly you remember where you were in your process and can not only start immediately where you left off, but also with a clean and clear mind.

That's what de-cluttering does. 

Now that explains how de-cluttering works for your studio, but what about if we start practicing de-cluttering our mind.  In Feng Shui, practitioners are always talking about how important it is to have a clear space to work.  That means that the things around us are well-edited.  This world is full of ideas and suggestions about how we can spend our time, how we intake more information, how we can be more useful, how we can do more in less time, when maybe what we need to do to be really productive, is to be more edited about how we spend our most valuable resource - our time and our attention.  Having an environment that is well-edited is a start, but how do we do that with our mind.

Here are some guidelines that really will help with editing your attention to what's really necessary.  These were created by a professional therapist who advises high-powered executives on how to better use their time.  She calls them time thieves  and they are meant to help keep you on track of what you are supposed to be doing, as opposed to going down a rabbit hole of time and energy on something that isn't as productive.  She recommends keeping yourself aware to check always if an activity is really working for you or against you.  She says most of us fall mostly into one category, even though we can all relate to all five categories.  I keep all 4 on my screen saver to constantly remind me to stay focused.


1. Time Thief - Drive 
For this one ask yourself - Is there anything I can let go of? 
The point here is that we can be driven to do this, and then that and suddenly before you know it we are pulled in many different directions - they can all be honorable, worthwhile directions, but because we are pulled in so many at once, we are doing all of them poorly instead of doing a few of them excellently.  Her suggestion here is to keep yourself on as few projects at one time as possible, and even prioritize your projects.


2. Time Thief - Excellence
For this one ask yourself - Where is "good enough" really GOOD ENOUGH?
So what happens here is that we are all-consumed by the idea that this or that is not quite good enough, and we spend endless time and hours increasing the quality by an nth degree.  For this, letting go, even though it may not be perfect, is more of a matter of realizing that the time spent in achieving the last points of perfection will only be noticed by you and that's all, and the bottom line is that the time spent achieving those last details of perfection, are truly time very poorly spent.


3. Time Thief - Information
The question to ask here is: What do I truly need to know?
This time thief wants to steal your time on the search for information that is minimally useful if useful at all.  These can really zap your time, as this time thief wants to go off on an infinite number of tangents that spawn into other tangents and on and on and on looking for information that really isn't where you started and certainly not what you need to accomplish your task.  For this thief, the awareness that this may be your particularly favorite thief, is to know that not only do you not need to know everything, but it's OK not to know all there is out there to know.  Basically we are not all-knowing, and that being all-knowing is really above our pay grade!


4. Time Thief - Activity
The question here is What deserves my attention?
The time thief simply wants to use all your time on this or that project, or person, or event or anything that may think you need to be paying special attention to.  Sometimes this is simply a matter of telling others, as well as yourself, that you can have some "you time."  This may be family or friends or church or even events that you may have volunteered for thinking that possibly you would have time, then your work load increased, or your child had an illness and you're time has to be re-focused on your child. 

For a true confession, my main thief is that I need to constantly ask myself what do I really need to know.  I can go down the rabbit hole so fast on information.  As I'm searching for a photo of an Alexander McQueen shirt that I saw in his boutique a couple of years ago in New York, and suddenly, I'm looking at Zac Posen's favorite green gown and trying to figure out how he did it!  Suddenly I have to say STOP - where is this going....WHAT DO I NEED TO KNOW!!!!!

To be honest we are all susceptible to all of them, but one is a particularly devilish time thief more than another, and that's the one that needs particular attention.  And this is all a matter of being aware, and suddenly realizing that a time thief is stealing not only your time, but your energy and suddenly you are 3 hours down the road with nothing to show for it but the time thief laughing his heart out and flying away with your time!

What this therapists and time managers have discovered is that employees who have good boundaries when it comes to time management are not only good producers, but better producers than those who work longer hours and what appears to be harder hours.  So paying an employee for less time, but they are more productive seems like a good deal for the employer but also for the employee.

For we artists, this is a boon of information.  Sometimes it takes posting it on the inside of your eyelids, because these time thieves are so dang subtle that before you know it, 2 hours later, you're down the rabbit hole on some goose chase, when you really don't need to be there.  The therapist recommends NOT berating yourself over it, simply be aware.  The first time will be the hardest; the second, next to the hardest; third time will be 3rd hardest, and on and on.  It does get easier as you go along.

This will not only help you with your creativity, but it will also help you in the other areas of your life - your job, your home, your family life, your friends.  You become more productive in all these areas by spending less time, but better quality time accomplishing your goals. 

Good luck with this!

PS - all the graphics in this email are linked, so that you can download them and put them on your desktop or screensaver.  It helped me a lot at first, cause I unfortunately go down the rabbit hole way too often and for far too long! 

 

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