September is a long way off, but August is the perfect time to start thinking about all the demands and challenges of the fall. Personally, I love the feeling of having a place for everything and everything in its place, and it helps my creativity as well. When my space is ready for me and the work to be done, there’s less clutter in my mind as well. So what organizational goals will you be fulfilling this August?
1. Deal with old papers.
As a teacher, I end up with a giant stack of papers at the end of each semester. There are uncollected essays and quizzes, extra handouts, class notes, syllabi — you name it. They make a messy mountain in my inbox, and it’s a bad idea to start a new semester with that swirling around. One of my summer chores is always to go through these papers and eliminate what I don’t need.
There are all sorts of other papers a writer acquires — printouts of drafts, scribbled notes, and the like. It’s a good idea to either file these away or toss them during your August clean.
2. Put things in their place.
During the summer, I’m often rushing in and out of my apartment, going from family functions to activities, and I let the place fall apart a little. The coffee table becomes a dumping ground for miscellaneous junk from my bag; clothes start to pile up in the bedroom. It’s a good idea to spend an hour putting things where they belong. I believe that putting things in order can really help you put things in order in your mind; if something’s bothering you, a good tidy can help you resolve it. It’s a little like fishing or motorcycle maintenance in Robert Pirsig’s classic philosophical novel
3. Tidy place, tidy mind
Cleaning, if done cheerfully and honestly, can be a creative act. It’s about practicing a little mindfulness in your life, concentrating on your work, doing a good job, getting things in order. The magic of activities like cleaning is that it can help to resolve other issues in your life. If you’re struggling as to what to do next in your story or novel, take a break and file some papers, sweep the floor, do a simple, honest activity with a concrete result. In the background, your mind will be working on that problem. And you may be surprised to find the problem resolved when you’re done sweeping. In that way, cleaning and organizing can help get your creative life in order.
Excellent post. Now maybe offer your thoughts on the effects on the creative process of living in a clean and compact city? (Boston as opposed to New York.)
I can’t help commenting on this, as I presently live in the Boston area but was born and raised in Manhattan and lived there for some years after college.
Yes, Boston is smaller and easier to get around. Yes, it’s smaller. Yes, it strikes me as better organized.
But it also is, IMO, a less exciting city, both in the arts scene and in the effects of chaos on creativity.
To take one example, there is far more theater, both on and off Broadway, in New York. The half-price ticket place in New York, at 47th and Broadway, is always overflowing with interesting theater, and there are so many off and off-off Broadway plays that the poverty-stricken student (me, when I was in grad school at NYU) can find something exciting to watch.There’s Joe Papp’s theater in central park, there’s the theater he built down by NYU, there’s an extremely lively local music scene in New York. There’s the Art Student’s league.
I also found the noise and chaos, the constantly changing scene, even the surly passers-by to get my creative juices flowing.
Anyone else care to weigh in on this?