Tidying Up

From Kate’s Writing Crate…

If you cannot think of anything to write, try cleaning or organizing your desk or Writer's Crate. Doing something mindless like dusting or tossing old papers, gives your conscious mind something to focus on, but your subconscious is free to roam and come up with ideas.

          We’ve been spring cleaning the house as many friends and relatives will be visiting this summer. Recycling old papers and magazines, tossing junk, and boxing up donations is invigorating. A clean and organized space has new energy, but clean and organize to your own specifications.

          I’m a vertical organizer, i.e., a pile person, so my idea of organized may not match most people’s—and that’s okay. I’m the one who works in my office so it only has to meet my standard. While others may think I’m disorganized, I can find what I need within a moment or two.

          Like everyone else, I can be surprised at things I find in drawers and cupboards. Out of sight, out of mind so I keep important things in sight.

          I did have fun with the Marie Kondo, author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, method of clothes sorting. She recommends putting every article of your clothing on your bed then deciding quickly whether to keep, donate, or toss them. I thought it would be daunting, but it was the easiest way to do this. I filled one bag with ripped or stained clothes (mostly with ink as I love red and blue liquid ink Pilot V-Ball pens). Another bag was filled with clothes I rarely wore or new clothes I have never worn to be donated. The rest are in drawers or the closet. No piles anywhere except the laundry hamper—and I can live with that.

          All this cleaning and organizing gave me a visitor-ready house as well as ideas for this post, my Viewpoint column, and my Editor’s Facebook Thoughts. Always fun when a chore turns out to be a creative outlet!    

Word Count for the week of May 28-June 3 was 11,266.

Becoming an Organized Writer

From Cheryl's Writing Crate

When Kate and I started our blog, The Writer’s Crate, I was so excited I could barely contain myself.  With writing as my passion, I thought sure it would be effortless for me to come up with one post a week in a timely fashion.

Wrong!  Though ideas for individual posts are not usually a problem, organizing my time between my large family (I promise I’m not using the 8-kid thing as my trump card!), my paid writing jobs (thank you Lord for those—I never take a single one for granted.), my part-time job at a school, and keeping my household in order on top of PTO, church activities and making time to keep myself sane and healthy while not forgetting play time each day with our two dogs, I guess I got a little ahead of myself forgetting that blogs don’t write themselves, at least not good ones.

Ever grateful for the dynamic presence of the internet and the plethora of on-line articles available for helping nearly any cause one might be searching for, I found some wonderful tips that I believe are going to get me on the “write” track during this New Year so that not only will my weekly blog post be on time and written to the best of my availability but they will trickle into other areas of my writing and personal life as well.

Here are some great tips from writer K.M. Weiland I intend to try as soon as this post is uploaded!

An Organized Desk or Writer's Crate

Whether your desk is your bed (not unusual for us writers), your kitchen table, or an actual desk, the important thing is putting and keeping your stuff in places that are both memorable and convenient.

Tip:  Use a large desk calendar to keep track of all of your writing commitments whether they are for fun or for paid writing jobs.  If you prefer, create a spreadsheet on your computer but the key is to check it every single day so you’ll never forget what’s coming up.  It’s also helpful to break your writing down into chunks of time.  For example, if you’re writing a piece that requires you to interview two different sources, schedule the proper time for each interview, then perhaps time to outline your article then time to actually write it and submit it to your editor.  Don’t underestimate how much time each portion of your assignment will take, that is where writers can easily get into time-management trouble and fall behind. 

Tip: Big drawers are often just hidden messes, so optimize them by dividing them into smaller, more specific niches. Use metal bookends to divide my drawers into smaller subdivisions. Pens go in front, iPod/Pad/Kindle/phone cords in the middle, little-used odds and ends in the back.

This Year, I'm going to get "back on track" and get my writing area organized and as inspired as this desk!

Organizing Your Computer and Browser

In our mad rush to clean our houses, we can sometimes overlook the one place where we actually spend the most time: the computer. If you haven’t sorted through your files lately, make time to look through every nook and cranny of your computer.

Tip: Delete files you no longer need (but make sure you really don’t need them!) and organize the files that remain into sensible categories.

Tip:  To keep your computer as clean looking as possible, organize files into the smallest number of folders so you can save time by not clicking through numerous subfolders before finding the one you finally need.

While you’re elbow deep in computer dust, take another minute to sort through your browser’s bookmarks and add-ons. 

Tip: Make extensive use of folders and subfolders in your bookmarks.

Tip: Every couple of years, go through all the bookmarks and delete any links that are dead or no longer useful to me.

What keeps you organized and on track in your writing world?

Spring Clean Your Writing Life

From Cheryl's Writing Crate

Anyone that knows me well understands my fetish with cleaning and reorganizing projects.  I don’t mind how pathetic it sounds, I love to clean and organize my home.  The fact that I have 8 kids may have something to do with that, but I really believe it’s that sense of accomplishment and peace I feel after tackling a messy cupboard and clearing away all the clutter with the finished result of an orderly area that functions better and is fun to look at once it’s neatly organized.

With spring here, many of us are embarking on spring cleaning projects in our homes, but there are lots of areas in our lives that could use a little freshening up, and for those of us who are writers, it’s the perfect opportunity to take a good inventory of what’s working in our writing life and what could use some rearranging and straightening up.

Here’s a list of 4 things I am going to focus on this spring in regards to breathing new life into my writing life:

1. Re-evaluate My Goals and Actions

Do I still have the same goals that I did six months ago? Am I choosing activities and writing rituals that are  in keeping with making these goals happen?  (For Example, one rather large writing goal I had in January was to really get cranking on the novel I started nearly two years ago.  I still have this as one of my most important goals, but I have definitely not committed the right amount of time and habits to making it happen.)

As a writer you can help relieve troubling thoughts by journaling about them. Some writers use these ideas and thoughts from the past to begin their memoirs.  I am doing this with my “morning pages” that I referenced in a blog post earlier in the month.

2. Stop Doing What isn’t Working

·        Am I procrastinating because I am bored with my writing projects? 

·        Do I still carve out quiet time to work in my writer’s crate every morning like I was doing in the fall?

·        Why am I getting distracted when I start a writing project—is it the environment, e-mail distractions, too much time checking out facebook?

·        Do I need to reconfigure my writing routine and work in the evening after the kids go to bed instead of getting up so early each morning only to find laundry waiting to be folded or lunches to be made for school that day?

By honestly assessing where my writing habits need some fine tuning, I am staying true to my most important goal which is writing each and every day.

3. Polish My Space to Shiny and Bright

Yes, I love to clean and organize, but like so many moms, I tend to focus on the main family areas in our home rather than my own sacred writing crate.  I am going to use the renewed energy that spring brings to do a little redecorating in my writing space and clear out some of the clutter.  I have some new inspirational quotes I plan on getting framed and will also rotate some of my favorite writing books off my book shelves and onto my desk for easier reference as well as a change of ideas from the several books I’ve been using over and over again for the past 6 months.

Even writers need to spring clean their "writing" lives!

4. Plant new seeds

Spring is a great time to do something new. I’ve always loved gardening and decorating because of the creative satisfaction I feel when I accomplish a pretty project.  When I work with paint or plants, it usually sparks some ideas for my writing projects.  I will be taking some time to devote to my creative muse in hopes that it will plant some fresh new seeds that will sprout into some exciting writing projects.

Simply by creating the above list, I already feel inspired to revamp some of my writing projects!  What about you—how do you clear out the cobwebs in your writing life and freshen up your spaces and ideas?