every year I go through this self analysis and strategic planning phase as the new year aproaches. I look back over the previous year and see where I got off course … and try to make new goals accordingly. There is a lot of that going on right now, and I won’t bore you with it… but I wanted to share one of the results of this years “Think”.
I’m a creative type. could you tell? and the problem with creative types is, usually our interests are a bit scattered…. attention spans are short… there are more things to do in the world than time to do them in. this can, ironically, result in a lack of doing anything. because I can not do the whole dozen things I am inspired to rush off and start right now, I will do none of them… or I will do something familiar and convenient – stagnant. ideas remain unfulfilled because I am frozen in the headlights of choice.
as I was pondering this stumbling block and looking for solutions for the coming year, I started to think about how I’ve handled this in the past. in the past, I would wait until I either had spare time between deadlines or I was bored and looking for a new project/different project.
when those times came, I would sometimes wander into the studio and start pulling open drawers and boxes looking through supplies. usually this would be prompted by a spontaneous bit of cleaning. as I looked through the options of supplies, I would get inspired to play and experiment… but I would be inspired by too many options. I would also usually be stymied by the lack of clear workspace that inspired the spontaneous cleaning to begin with…
other times, when I hit that need to do something (anything) else, I would pull out inspiration/idea journals or start roaming the art bookshelves. again, overload. too many ideas without enough time.
as I was pondering options for overcoming this, I started to think about my alarm program on my laptop. I started entering a few of the larger categories of things I often forget to get back to as prompts to pop up in a few months… but it occurred to me that I might not have the time or right motivation at the randomly selected time of the pop up alarm to make these effective. sure, they would bring things back into the foreground of my awareness… but that might just add stress. not relieve it.
so, what could I do at the time of that restlessness that prompts new action… but wouldn’t cause inspiration overload? and then it came to me… I use a journal prompts jar to prompt me on topics to explore in my journal… why not a project prompts jar?
as a tool, it fills a lot of the needs of the situation:
- I can use it to isolate one idea at a time when I need a prompt.
- if the first prompt isn’t what I need right then, I can choose another.
- it doesn’t pressure me when I am under deadlines or not available.
- I can add both large/global concepts and specific small “one-time” projects or unfinished projects.
- things can be added and removed as needed/desired.
- it gives me all the pleasure of knowing (and visualizing) that I have many options… without pressuring me with all the things I haven’t done.
in a matter of a few hours, I have 45 project/idea prompts in the jar. I know there will be many more to come. at the moment, I’m keeping an additional list of all the ideas I have added to the jar, so I can remember if something has been added already. eventually, once most things have been added to the jar, I will stop keeping the separate list… if things get added more than once, then obviously they are on my mind… and therefore it would be good for them to come up a bit more often, right?
and now, I can also go and clean up the studio without feeling guilty as I look at all the things I haven’t been utilizing. instead, I can tell myself that I will pick something from the jar… right after I finish clearing up a nice workspace so I can actually do something! and all those things I find along the way… into the jar they go!
and, yes, being the creative type, eventually, the jar will become something decorative and pretty… but for the moment, it is just an old pickle jar with crumpled papers inside (folded papers tend to stick together)… it is more important to have the tool function right now. decorating the jar is just another prompt to add….
