I must confess, I’m a strong pull to the right brain big picture thinker. My organization skills are very predictable, but they lack consistency. Things like ‘planning’ and ‘strategy’ and ‘organization’ look very different for me than they do for other people.
I have piles, bags, and boxes full of old paperwork. My chaos makes my ‘A’ brained family members crazy. They’re tidy, paperless wonderland of a file system is, well, a bit of a wonderland to me.
I often wonder why after all these years, I just can’t shift my way of doing things to how the Covey’s and Robbin’s of the world do things. I wish for that New Year’s Resolution to become more consistent, more in order, more sensical than Seussical in how I prefer a space if I’m working in it.
Uniquely You
Then, I go to one of my projects and I realize, I like my books over there, my piles of reference over here. I enjoy the spread of paints, or posters, the wild colors, and crisp newly sharpened pencils spread out into a pattern that ignites my synapses alive for the creation of a new thing, be it book or art or insight into a shift in what will make my business better.
I’ve read articles about how the messier we are, the higher order thinking we’re doing. We’re in flow with the thoughts, so don’t have as much time to tidy up the desk. We’re organized in our own unique way, that isn’t better or worse, but instead, just different.
When you ask a traditionally organized person to find a certain file, they go right to it. However, if you ask a piles of paper on the desk person to find an article, they too, will know exactly where they left it last.
“Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider, is chaos for the fly.” ~ Charles Addams
Consistently ‘Other’
In all the years of promising myself consistency with the attached mental attitude that I have to change in order to feel more normal, more successful, it never really occurred to me to shift.
Instead of trying to be someone else’s version of organized, I’ve come to the conclusion to be my own version of it. See, I’ve BEEN consistent all along. It’s my space. I do my best work when I’m not super planned out. My brain is free to create and be when I allow the mess to flow with the project. Part of the joy of creating a book, a piece of art, or anything that a ‘B’ brain does is to do so with wild abandon, then, after the fact, tidy up the space as a sort of ritual of completion.
I am free, in my mind, to do as I please. I’ve been searching for something I’ve had all along. Consistency. My own sort of organization and planning. This month, I’m writing a full length novel as part of the #NaNoWriMo2017 as Daly Karen. Speaking of don’t spend time organizing, just sprint through the 80K words, and clean it up later!
Here’s to you finding your own internal organized happy place, be it normal or not!
Peace!
Karen
About the Author: Karen Henry [Daly], MA CRM owns Henry Healing as a holistic well-being practitioner and writer. She’s a former university professor and current scholar practicing the infusion of positive, existential and community psychology.