The Kaizen Plan for Organized Authors:
Take Control of Your Writing Career 10 Minutes at a Time
by Lynn Johnston
Published by Open Clearing Press at Smashwords
Copyright 2011 Lynn Johnston
Discover other titles by Lynn Johnston at Smashwords.com:
The Kaizen Plan for Decluttering Your Computer (free)
The Kaizen Plan for Decluttering Your To-Do List (free)
The Kaizen Plan for Healthy Eating
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A few of the sections in this book started off as posts on Lynn's blog, smallstepstobigchange.com.
Table of Contents
What Does Being Organized Mean?
Having a Better Relationship With Your Future Self
The Three Kinds of Storage and Why They Matter
How to Choose Storage Options to Fit Your Personality
Organizing Your Writing Business
The Magic Question That Keeps You Moving Forward
Separating Your Business Life From Your Personal Life
Be Kind to Your Future (Tax-Paying) Self
Organizing Your Creative Process
Collecting Ideas and Experiences
Incorporating Feedback from Critique Partners
Working with Agents and Publishers
Getting Started on the Next Project
Creating Your Personalized Kaizen Plan
Eliminate Distractions and Clutter
More Tweaks for Your Writing Space
Organizing the Tools of Your Trade
For Those Who Write Outside the Home
What Does a Completed Kaizen Plan Look Like?
What Happens to the Rest of It?
Now That I'm Organized, How Do I Stay This Way?
Introduction
Writers are different. We don't always think in straight lines. We take leaps of logic in order to visit new creative realms. We reorder the universe to find hidden connections and uncover the secret meaning of everyday life. We understand that if you want to make something beautiful, you might also have to make a mess.
But because creative minds aren't always logical, we often have difficulty getting and staying organized. Creative tasks are never cut-and-dried, a writer's productivity depends on the ability to cajole inspiration from the subconscious, and we often have to think analogically or metaphorically in order to get where we want to go.
If you're going to get organized and stay organized, you need to create a system that fits with the way you think. After all, you've spent years nurturing your creativity: your unique perspective on life is part of what sets you apart as a writer. Shoehorning your creative process into a series of one-size-fits-all boxes would be taking a step backward.
This book will lead you through the process of setting up your writing tools and resources in an order that feels natural to you and supports you in being more creatively successful.
What Does Being Organized Mean?
Does it mean color-coded file folders with neat labels? Rows of identical boxes lined up on a shelf? A trip to The Container Store to fondle transparent bins and exotic-looking kitchen implements? A planner stuffed with pre-printed forms to fill out?
Sure, those brightly-colored bins and labeled file folders are tempting. But unless you understand the real purpose of getting organized, all the containers in the world aren't going to help you get your act together.
The word "organize" comes from medieval Latin, organizare, which meant "to contrive or arrange."
Organizing your writing papers and tools isn't about making them look a certain way, it's about arranging them so that you can find what you need when you need it.
It's possible to have your office look like a disaster zone, but be organized. It's also possible to have your office look like Martha Stewart decorated it herself, but still be disorganized.
Of course, it's nice if you can find a balance between the two. But we're going to focus on organization first, and once you've taken control of each aspect of your writing career, you can do whatever you like to make it aesthetically pleasing.
Why You Need to Get Organized
Some of the biggest benefits of being organized are:
You save time on non-writing activities, which leaves you more time to actually write. Instead of having to gather all the info you need to do your taxes, for example, you simply pull out the folder that contains everything you've saved during the year, and you get started.
Physical clutter is usually a symptom of mental or emotional clutter. Cleaning out your workspace and setting it up so it supports your writing process can create mental space that you can use to think about your story.
You're able to present a more professional appearance. Missing deadlines, not being able to find things when you need them, and doing a sloppy job because you didn't plan ahead are all things that can kill your career before it gets off the ground. Setting up your workspace so that you can find everything you need at a moment's notice and doing enough planning to ensure that you're on track for your deadlines doesn't just save you time and stress, it also saves your reputation.
It gets easier to start. You'll have less resistance to writing each day if the place where you write is as pleasant and comfortable as you can make it.
I recommend taking a few minutes to pause here and make a list of the ways that you'd benefit from getting your writing career organized. What would getting organized mean for you? What problems would no longer plague you?
What is Kaizen?
Kaizen is a Japanese word meaning "continuous improvement" and it's used in the business world to describe the approach of accomplishing things by making a series of small, simple changes that result in gradual improvement. It's the approach Japanese businesses took after World War II to remake their manufacturing industry and turn companies like Honda and Toyota into the world-renowned corporations they are today.
But the kaizen approach isn't limited to manufacturing. It can be applied to any goal or project that can be broken down into smaller steps. The biggest benefit of the kaizen approach is that it eliminates overwhelm. All you have to do is focus on one small step at a time.
This is especially important for writers with deadlines. You can't afford to stop and spend a week culling files rearranging furniture and converting all your materials to a new organization system. You've got to meet your word count for the day.
Your customized kaizen plan will be a series of mini-projects that you can do gradually, when you have ten or fifteen minutes to make a small improvement to the way you're already doing things.
What is a Kaizen Plan?
A Kaizen Plan is simply a set of small but doable steps taken one at a time. Each step addresses some aspect of the problem you want to solve or the goal you want to achieve.
The effect of a Kaizen Plan is cumulative. Each small step you take synergizes with the others, so life gets better faster than you’d expect.
Each step in a Kaizen Plan has to fit several criteria:
- Simple. A plan consisting of complicated, difficult steps is a plan that never gets executed.
- Short. A change that requires you to set aside a large block of time is a change that doesn't get made. But a change that you can do in a few minutes is much easier to squeeze into your busy schedule. Most of the changes I've suggested can be made in a few minutes per day.
- Personalized. The most effective small steps are the ones that directly address your needs. Always feel free to modify any of the suggestions in this book so they work for you, or use them as inspiration for coming up with specific changes that meet your needs.
- Affirming. You shouldn't have to change your personality to change your habits. The goal isn't to become a different person, it's to become a more organized version of who you already are.
If you're a super-motivated, uber-disciplined overachiever whose life is already organized in 15 minute increments…this book isn't for you. It's for the rest of us.
What kinds of projects is the kaizen approach appropriate for?
The kaizen approach is a tool you can turn to when:
- You can’t carve out a big enough chunk of time to complete a project all at once
- You’ve been procrastinating on the project because it seems overwhelming
- You don’t have the willpower to make a big change (like quitting smoking or going on a diet) all at once
- You’re not sure where to start, or you’re afraid of starting in the wrong place
- You’ve started the project before and given up or gotten distracted
- You don’t have an impending deadline to keep your motivation up
- You have a lot of mental resistance to changing
- You want to make a change that is actually multiple small changes combined
That last one is so important I want to repeat it: sometimes the change you want to make is actually multiple small changes combined. Just because you can state your goal in a single word or phrase doesn’t mean it’s one change.
The kaizen approach helps you separate a big goal into all its little changes so you can focus on one at a time.
A kaizen plan is also customizable. Maybe all the materials for your current manuscript are in a binder organized by section, but your tax receipts are all over the house and your royalty statements are under a huge pile of other stuff. Maybe you're in the habit of creating a checklist for each book release, but you can't find the story idea you jotted down on a napkin at the family picnic last Sunday. Maybe your contracts are all neatly filed, but you've got to keep the copyedits your publisher just sent you on your nightstand for fear of losing them amidst the piles on your desk.
Anything that's already working for you, keep doing it. You'll create a kaizen plan that starts with where you are right now and introduces very small adjustments in the direction you want to go.
How to Use This Book
Before you change anything in your writing space, you're going to create a plan for setting it up so that it's right for you. It might seem easier to jump in and start moving piles of paper around, but without a clear vision for your workspace, you're likely to get discouraged or distracted, abandoning the project before you even reach the halfway point.
Your kaizen plan for getting organized is going to break the process down into very small steps. Once it's complete, you'll be able to work through it at your own pace and in the order you'd prefer.
I've created worksheets to fill out as you read this book and do the exercises. You can download them in either RTF (if you want to type into them) or PDF (if you want to print them out and fill them in by hand) at:
www.smallstepsforwriters.com/downloads
As we create your kaizen plan, you will:
Identify the function of the space you're organizing. This book focuses on setting up your writing space so that it completely supports your unique creative process. But if you wanted to apply this organizing process to any other space in your home, you could start by making a list of all the things you do in that space. The function of the space (what you use it for) is an excellent guide for making decisions about what should be in that space.
Identify the essentials. What do you really need to run your writing business? Which of the items in your writing space are crucial to your daily activities as an author, and which are extraneous objects that are slowing you down and cluttering up your workspace? In order to identify the objects that are essential to you as a writer, you'll take a detailed look at your personal creative process and how you relate to your environment. Then you'll take a "shopping list" approach: for each task you perform as an author, you'll ask, "What are the minimum number of tools/supplies I need to accomplish this task?"
Choose the most effective way of storing the essentials, based on your personal style, needs, and habits. Are you more of an everything-in or an everything-out person? Is your dominant learning style visual, auditory or kinesthetic? Which parts of the writing process do you enjoy the most, and which do you find stressful or uncomfortable? You'll take these things (and others) into consideration as you create your customized plan for getting organized.
Evaluate your writing space. What have you got to work with? What do you love and hate about the place where you create? The more comfortable and less distracting you can make your workspace, the more energy you'll have for writing.
In order to make a change and stick to it, you need to start where you are right now. You probably already know what you've got under control and what aspects of your writing you need to get in order. For example, if you've already got a great system for saving tax-related documents or you're happy with the way you're using your calendar, stick with that. The point of this book is not to force you through a rigid program of change, but to give you a menu of possible steps to choose from so you can move steadily toward becoming more organized.
How long it takes you to get everything you need organized will depend on where you are right now, how much time you have in your schedule, and how much tolerance you have for change. Some of you will probably get so inspired that you'll set aside a weekend to work through it. Others may need to spread these tasks out over a year, doing a few minutes a day. The important thing is not how long it takes you to do it, but that you actually do it, and keep doing it until you're happy with your writing space and routines.
The goal is to make each change so underwhelming that you have no excuse for not doing it. Underwhelming is good!
If you find yourself not keeping to the changes you've committed to, it's probably time to slow it down. One of the main reasons we often fail to make a big change (losing weight, for example) is that it's really many changes clumped together under a single name (eating more veggies, counting calories, resisting the temptation to eat M&M's when you hit a mid-afternoon slump, finding a low-fat or sugar-free salad dressing you actually like the taste of, establishing the habit of going for a walk after dinner each day).
The beauty of the kaizen approach is that your personalized plan only requires you to make one of those small changes at a time. Add the next small change as soon as you're comfortable with the previous one. It's okay if you can make two changes one week, but then need a month to adapt to the third change.
Most of the steps in this program can be done in a few minutes per day or less. Sometimes those minutes need to happen all at once and sometimes they will be spread out in smaller chunks of time throughout the day. You can spend more time on any step if you want to, of course.
I'm a big believer in making a plan before jumping into a project, especially when organizing. As you work through this book, you'll be jotting a lot of notes to yourself and doing some written planning exercises that will help you simplify the process of getting organized. I've created a number of worksheets to make the exercises easier, downloadable at:
www.smallstepsforwriters.com/downloads
I recommend getting a folder or binder to keep these worksheets in one place, at least until you've made it through the whole book.
And last but not least, please don't allow yourself to get hung up on a particular step. If you're waiting for a family member to come over and help you move heavy furniture, focus on the parts of the process that you can do on your own.
Organizing Your Thoughts
Before we get started, let's address some of the mental aspects of getting organized.
Keeping It Simple
Overcomplicating tasks is one of the ways we sabotage ourselves. Why do we do it? At some point, we accepted the belief that the solution to a problem has to be at least as complicated as the problem itself.
Ironically, even the most complicated problems are often the result of a few simple things not being taken care of. The good news is that paying attention to those few simple things from here on out can make a big difference in how smoothly your life is running.
As you work through this book and start to design your own system of organization, I recommend that you keep it as simple as possible. An organization system should save you work, not create busy work for you.
Before you implement each new small step, ask yourself:
"Is this the simplest way to do this task?"
"How can I reach my goal in the fewest possible steps?"
"What is the bare minimum I need in order to do this?"
I also want to point out that we often equate "simple" with "easy" and "complex" with "hard."
But there are complex tasks—like driving a car, for example—which feel easy once you've practiced them long enough.
And there are very simple tasks—like choosing a piece of fruit over a brownie for dessert—which feel excruciatingly hard even when you know what you're supposed to do.
Simple: having few parts or few steps
Complex: having many parts or many steps
Easy: requiring little willpower to accomplish
Hard: requiring lots of willpower to accomplish
Having a simple system of organization can help make hard tasks easier by:
- eliminating distractions that tempt you to procrastinate
- creating an environment that encourages you to focus on the important things
Having a Better Relationship With Your Future Self
Take a few seconds to close your eyes and imagine yourself at this time next year. What do you see?
Is your future self calm or harried? Sitting in a clean room or a cluttered one? Doing something fun or scrambling to get through the day?
Does Future You have more time than you do right now?
If you’re like most people, you probably imagine you future self in at least a little bit better shape than you are right now. Psychological studies show that we tend to overestimate how much time we’ll have in the future, and we optimistically believe that down the road, life will be calmer and less rushed.
So we feel comfortable delegating work to our future selves. A lot of disorganization is the result of giving your present self a break ("I'll just leave this mail on the kitchen counter and sort it later") at the expense of your future self.
Ironic, isn’t it? Your optimism is actually guaranteeing that your’ll have less time in the future than we have now.
Every time you do a craft project but leave your supplies out on the kitchen table instead of putting them away, you’re delegating work to your future self. So Future You not only has to do all the usual chores of life–dishes, laundry, vacuuming, making a living–but also has to either clean up an extra mess or live with the extra clutter.
News flash: that means Future You is going to have less time and more stress than Present You. And Future You is probably going to resent Present You for it.
The obvious cure for this is to be a pessimist about time. But personally, I'm reluctant to use pessimism as my primary time management technique. If I walk around telling myself “I don’t have enough time now, and I’m going to have even less in the future,” I’m going to start feeling pretty depressed.
So instead, how about focusing on my relationship with Future Lynn? What if I started looking at my habits in terms of how they affect the quality of Future Lynn’s life?
Now I’m not putting those craft supplies away because it’s a stupid chore, I’m putting them away as an act of compassion for my future self. I’m spending those five minutes cleaning up because doing it is going to make Future Lynn’s life better. By thinking of these tasks as a gift I’m giving my future self, I get the little happy rush that comes from helping someone else, so Present Lynn gets a mood lift while doing something that needed to get done.
Since I’m married, Future Lynn isn’t the only person who’ll benefit. Future Husband is also going to be able to enjoy a less cluttered environment too. So now I’m helping two people out with this simple five-minute task.
If I’ve got to do the task anyway, isn’t it better to do it now in the spirit of helpfulness and generosity than to do it angrily later?
I’d also like to point out that this is the cure for the tendency to prioritize other people’s work while neglecting our own. We want to make life better for our loved ones, so we’re willing to proofread Dear Husband’s presentation or make cookies to raise money for the kids’ soccer team, and we neglect our health or our writing or our some other thing that’s very important to us.
Thinking of my future self as a friend that I’d like to help makes it easier to see that my goals are important too. Doesn’t Future Lynn deserve the health boost that Present Lynn can give her by taking a 10 minute walk after dinner?
You bet she does.
Like any habit, making this mental shift is going to require some practice in order for it to stick. But the benefits—setting aside time to pursue your own goals, knowing that tomorrow's to-do list is a little bit shorter—are worth it.
Take Action
Re-evaluate your to-do list in light of how accomplishing these things will make life better tomorrow. How will taking the time to organize your writing life make life better for your future self?
What Is Clutter?
Clutter is anything that gets in the way of you using a particular space the way you want to.
When you start thinking about your possessions in terms of their purpose or function, decluttering any space becomes much simpler.
Decide what you want to use the space for: a workout area, your writing space, a place to get dressed in the morning, a place to relax after dinner. Then ask yourself the same question for each object in that space: "How does this object help me do the activity I do here?"
(Note: A room can contain multiple spaces, each with its own purpose. For example, my livingroom has a TV-watching space containing a TV, couch and coffee table; a mail space consisting of a small table near the front door with an outgoing mail basket on it; a project space containing a small table and two chairs; and a getting-ready-to-work-in-the-garden space near the back door where garden boots are lined up.)
When everything in a particular space supports the activity you do in that space, environmental friction is eliminated.
Shoes on the shoe rack in your closet are not clutter. Those same shoes, kicked off and left in the middle of your livingroom where you can trip on them, are clutter.
A pile of papers on your desktop that you are actively working on is not clutter. That same pile gathering dust on your coffee table while you procrastinate on dealing with them is clutter.
A framed photo that makes you happy when you look at it is not clutter. A framed photo that makes you upset when you look at it is clutter, no matter how gorgeous the image or elegant the frame.
A toaster that works and gets used regularly to make toast is not clutter. A broken toaster is clutter.
Simple, right?
One of the problems we often have is that we've accumulated a lot of objects that we don't actually use or want. Whether these objects were well-intended gifts, impulse buys, or are things we've outgrown doesn't matter now. What matters is that they no longer support us in having the kind of life we want to live.
As you analyze your writing process, you're going to discover which of the objects in your workspace are supporting you in being a more successful writer.
I'm not going to tell you to throw out the rest, but I am going to strongly recommend that all those objects that don't support your writing process be moved out of your writing space.
I'm also not going to tell you to get rid of knickknacks with sentimental value, but I am going to suggest that you only keep a few that are relevant to your writing in your writing space. If your grandmother made a big deal out of posting your poetry on her refrigerator and encouraged you to be a writer, then yes, keep the lamp she left you on your desk. Your science project blue ribbons from grade school or soccer trophy from college—put them somewhere else unless they have associations that support your self-image as a writer.
The Three Kinds of Storage and Why They Matter
Premium storage is the storage that's easy to access: shelves that are low enough that you don't need a stepstool to reach them, for example, or desk drawers.
Secondary storage is storage that's more of a hassle to access: out-of-reach shelves, the garage or the attic, boxes kept under the bed.
When you're finding places for your belongings, follow this simple rule—items that you use more than once a week belong in premium storage, and items that you use once a month or less go in secondary storage.
Things that you use less than once a week but more than once a month are a judgment call, depending on how much premium storage you have and how full it already is.
Also, current projects go in premium storage spots, but projects you won't be working on this month go in secondary storage. This not only keeps your working area from getting cluttered with projects you're not working on, it also reduces the temptation to switch from project to project.
There's a third kind of storage: temporary storage. When you put the mail down on the kitchen counter to sort later, the kitchen counter becomes a temporary storage space for unsorted mail.
In most cases, temporary storage is another name for clutter!
There are a couple types of temporary storage that are okay:
An inbox (which is where other people put things for you to look at when you're unavailable)
A designated spot where you're putting things that you'll be dealing with very soon. For example, a basket near the front door where you collect outgoing mail. Or the school papers that have to be signed that you've stuck to the fridge with a magnet. Or the spot by the front door where you put your briefcase at night so that you won't forget to take it to work the next day).
It’s crucial that you keep temporary storage to a minimum and that you only store the appropriate items there. You also need to make a routine for handling the items you put in those temporary storage spaces. If you don’t go through your inbox at least once a week and take care of the things in it, your inbox becomes just another place where papers get lost.
Now that you understand what the three different types of storage are and how they work, keep them in mind as you're organizing each area of your writing career.
How to Choose Storage Options to Fit Your Personality
Before you organize anything, it's a good idea to take a few minutes to reflect on your personal preferences and how those may affect the approach you take to organizing. The goal is to create a system that fits with who you are and how you think. So let me ask you a few questions:
Paper vs electronic?
As you work through the different sections of this book, I'd like you to think about whether or not you prefer computer or paper/pen for different tasks. Many writers prefer to edit on paper, and it seems to be true that you catch different things when you see words on the screen than when you see them printed.
Personally I don't brainstorm well on the computer—I need a pen in my hand, and I need to be able to scribble while I'm thinking.
Catching awkward phrasing and grammatical errors is a computer task for me, though, as I'm more likely to see those mistakes when the computer is reading out loud to me and I'm following along on the screen. And I couldn't polish without Word's search function, which shows me all the places where I've relied on adverbs or "was."
Bright colors or zen garden minimalism?
Do you want your writing space to be stimulating or calming? Or a mixture of the two? As you're coming up with places to store the tools of your trade and rearranging your workshop to enhance your productivity, you'll want to take your personal aesthetics into account. Sure those primary-color plastic cubbies look adorable, but are they going to be constantly drawing your eye away from the computer screen while you're slogging through a tough scene? Will clearing everything off your desk but your laptop make you feel more serene, or will it make the room feel too empty?
Everything-out or everything-in?
This seems to be a big split in organizational styles: people who want everything out where they can see it (the out-of-sight, out-of-minders) and people who want everything tucked away so that they only see what they're using right now.
Fortunately, there are plenty of organizing options for both types, because it's imperative that your storage containers match your style. If you need to see everything out in order to remember where things are but you've opted to file your papers in a traditional file drawer, chances are you'll be subconsciously afraid to file anything for fear of losing it.
Everything-out people will find it easier to organize their belongings in clear containers, wall racks, bulletin boards, vertical files, cubbies, stackable bins, binders on a shelf (with labeled spines), and document sorters.
Everything-in people, on the other hand, tend to be more comfortable with the traditional organizing solutions: opaque boxes, drawers, filing cabinets, cupboards, desks with rolltops, and armoires. They will be distressed to see charts thumbtacked to the wall and office supplies peeking out of cubby holes.
Visual, auditory, kinesthetic?
If you don't already know what your dominant learning style is, you can do a quick self-assessment at:
http://www.businessballs.com/vaklearningstylestest.htm
Your learning style can make a difference in how you like to organize things. Auditory learners tend to be focused on words, for example; if this is your learning style, you will probably want things to be clearly labeled. Kinesthetic learners, on the other hand, find it easy to remember things by location, so how things are arranged spatially is very important to them. Visual learners respond well to systems that use color-coding or even pictures.
Stationary or portable?
If you move between different spots in your home, you might find a portable filing box or one of those file crates on wheels ideal.
If you typically write outside of the home, how about a laptop bag or backpack containing your essential writing supplies and your current manuscript?
Take Action
Take a few minutes to think about your personal preferences and how those affect the way you work. Think about different places where you've worked or places you've gone to write. Where were you productive and where were you distracted? What elements were compatible with your working style and which ones rubbed you the wrong way?
Know Where You're Coming From
Take a minute to think about the home you grew up in. Was it neat or messy? Or did it oscillate between the two?
Who did the cleaning up, and how often? How much of a contribution were you expected to make to the household chores? Did your parents ever fight about who was supposed to clean up?
Did anyone ever explain to you why objects were arranged in a certain order or why it was important that things be put away when you were done with them?
Was cleaning your room a normal chore you were expected to do? Were you rewarded for doing it? Were you punished if you didn't?
What messages about organization were you exposed to? "Cleanliness is next to godliness?" "A messy desk is a sign of a creative mind?" Something else?
How did you feel about the person who delivered those messages to you?
I grew up in a house where cleaning happened on a cyclical basis. My father traveled a lot for work, and my mother no doubt felt overwhelmed by the task of caring for three children and maintaining a sprawling hundred year old farmhouse on her own. Our house would get slowly messier while Dad was away, and the day before he was supposed to return, Mom would rush around madly trying to restore order.
Worse, neither Mom nor Dad had ever been taught basic organization skills, so even when Dad was home, the clutter accumulated. Every once in a while, Dad would lose something and suddenly he'd realize the house was a mess—and he'd lose his temper. That meant the whole family was in trouble until at least the majority of the clutter was cleaned up.
By the time I was a teenager, I'd only experienced cleaning up as:
- something to be done in a fit of guilt, so that someone coming over wouldn't know how messy things had been, or
- something to be done to get out of the doghouse and earn back the right to do fun things
Since my parents didn't have many organizational skills, there was no one to teach me. Cleaning up was extremely stressful, because I genuinely didn't know where things were supposed to go. I would panic and shove things on shelves, in drawers, in my closet, under my bed, anywhere they would fit.
Naturally, for at least a week after "cleaning up" I'd be running around looking for things that I'd "put away," because I could never remember what I did with anything.
So not only did I have strong negative emotions around the actual cleaning process, I also came to associate "things looking neat" with "not knowing where my stuff is."
You might guess that by the time I reached adulthood, I had a lot of strikes against me in the "getting organized" department.
Your childhood might have been more organized than mine, but whatever it was like, you can be sure that it affects how you relate to your environment today.
Maybe your mother was a neat freak, and an uber-organized house seems sterile to you. Maybe your parents did all the housework for you, and you never really got into the habit of picking up after yourself. Or maybe you were an overachiever in the chores department because the only way you knew how to earn ice cream money was to do extra house work—and now you have resistance to doing those same chores for free. Or maybe you were raised with good habits but your day job is so vexing that you just don't feel like you have the energy to clean up at the end of the day.
Whether you followed in your parents footsteps or rebelled against the status quo, be aware of where your habits around cleaning up and getting organized came from, so that when one of those childhood issues raises its head, you'll be able to recognize unhelpful patterns and break them.
Take Action
What patterns of behavior did your parents teach you when it came to cleaning up and organizing your environment?
How do you feel about the house you grew up in? Is your home neater or messier?
Did you have any traumatic experiences around cleaning or organizing?
Can you see how these things might have affected the way you interact with your environment today or shaped your habits around cleaning up?
Organizing Your Writing Business
One of the things that published authors complain about regularly is how much time business activities eat up, leaving less time for writing. So let's start by getting your business organized. Then we'll get into the real cool stuff, organizing your workspace to fit your creative process..