Writing
Saturday, July 13th, 2013
By now you know how much I love trees. Today whilst driving in my car in traffic with the roof down I stopped under the sprawling branches of a shimmering Oak tree dancing in the light of the Sun’s rays.
That’s why I wanted to share this quote today sent to me by a former colleague Esther Waldron who posted the following excerpt from Thomas Merton, Seeds Of Contemplation on, The Soul Of The Rose website: http://estherwaldron.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/the-divinity-of-trees/
‘A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be it is obeying Him. It “consents,” so to speak, to His creative love. It is expressing an idea which, is in God and which is not distinct from the essence of God, and therefore a tree imitates God by being a tree.
The more a tree is like itself, the more it is like Him. If it tried to be like something else, which it was never intended to be, it would be less like God and therefore it would give Him less glory.
…This particular tree will give glory to God by spreading out its roots in the earth and raising its branches into the air and the light in a way that no other tree before or after it ever did or will do.’
Religious or not the quote draws parallels with the tree being uniquely itself and reminds me of how we can also mirror this in our writing by writing from a voice that is our own and not trying to imitate the voices of others.
I find this comforting when at a time when the market place is crowded with thousands sharing their message. Having a voice, a voice that pitches from the authentic realms from within will enable your writing to stand out from the masses.
Our best writing comes from when we write from who we are not who we want to be or who we think we should be. Your writing voice is when you find that ping in what you want to write about and express it in a voice that is your truly and authentically your own.
I believe wholeheartedly that there is much for us to learn from trees. I will be drawing on their energies and how they can inspire us both on and off the page at my writing retreat next Thursday 19th July until lunchtime on Sunday 21st July 2013. There are still places left. Go here to book: http://www.alternatives.org.uk/site/EventDescription.aspx?EventID=111
Remember who you are is how you write. You’ll never see an Oak trying to be a Willow or a Rose masquerading as a Daffodil. It will be a weekend of recovering your true voice and discover how you bring new ideas and a new perspective to your work.
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Wednesday, May 29th, 2013
Sipping Jasmine tea at the start of my day gives me a sense of space in what often feels like a crowded day.
My morning ritual on the days when I’m not delivering face to face training or have coaching clients booked into the earlier part of the day, is something I really look forward to.
The ritual is very simple and consists of a visit to Gail’s Bakery where I order a teapot of Jasmine tea and brown, granary toast with butter and jam.
Each visit if possible I sit at the same table. I’m by nature a creature of habit. Even though I advocate the value of different writing spots I find the ritual of sitting at the same table each morning deeply comforting and nurturing.
My morning ritual is really an intimate date with my journal a way to meet with my divine self. I’m a seasoned practitioner of writing Morning pages and emptying myself onto the pages of my personal journal.
My morning ritual may last for around 20 minutes, sometimes more but somehow the quality of time spent has slowly overtaken the amount of time it takes.
No matter how much time we allocate to conscious and mindful self-care, it’s surprising how much more spacious the simple act of writing first thing in the morning in my journal feels.
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Tuesday, May 28th, 2013
I write almost every day in some form whether for work or pleasure. But over the years I have established a much-cherished writing practice that has sustained and nourished my work as a writer and author.
First Things First
My best time for writing is first thing in the morning. I always have a journal on the go, which is either lined or unlined depending on where I am at. Lately I have taken to writing in unlined journals loving the freedom and open space that writing without lines gives me. I really got this under my belt after completing a brilliant online Journal Your Life course with Susannah Conway a course I would highly recommend www.susannahconway.com
Toast and Tea
Most mornings when I am not out delivering face to face training courses I will head off to one of my local cafés, Gail’s Bakery in West Dulwich and order a pot of Jasmine tea with some toast and jam and start writing.
Morning Pages
I normally start by emptying myself onto the page in a practice I have been doing for over twenty years now, Morning pages. Morning pages are three pages of fast writing without editing or censoring your thoughts onto the page. This is a great way to off load many concerns, worries, anxieties onto the page in a safe and constructive way. I often feel clearer, more focused and grounded once I have completed my early Morning pages and this gives way for me to be creative in other ways on the page.
Creative Connections
Once all of the angst and worries are out of my head it then makes space for more healthier thoughts and ideas to come to the forefront. The practice of writing Morning Pages makes it easier to access my creative data, which can often get buried under all the other stuff that fills up the space in our heads. For example I might get an idea for a blog post, recall something I read about earlier and make a note to follow it up or come up with ideas for a new exercise for a training course.
Writing in this way I also helps and guides me to streamline my list of things to do for the day. It seems that once I get my things to do list down on a page I feel more in control of how I will approach and go about my day.
Many ideas for posts for my blog have emerged from the daily practice of my Morning pages including the content for articles and even chapters for books I’ve written.
Cultivating My Writing Voice
My journals have also been home to the space where I have steadily cultivated my writing voice and gained more confidence in my writing ability. I value my journal for many reasons, most of all as it is the where I can be more of myself without expectations or judgments from others. It’s where I don’t have to explain, where I can off load and make sense.
Business Journal
Since completing Susannah Conway’s Journal Your Life online course www.susannahconway.com I now have a Business Journal. Where as in the past all ideas for my business would be included in and amongst my personal musings in my journal I now have a bright green Leuchtturm journal where I plant all of my ideas in luminous pink.
Having this journal has made a big difference the manifestation of many of my ideas for my business. I feel far more organized about my business and creative ideas. I am inspired each time I open the pages. It feels like a place where my business thrives and where I can easily see the progress I am making. The journal feels playful and engaging to work with and I love opening it’s pages and flicking through ideas, which turn into projects and articles. 
Writing In-Between The Gaps
When I am out delivering face-to-face courses I write in between the gaps and cracks of my day. Taking the Over ground train from my local station often lends itself to at least twenty minutes where I can use the journey to write my Morning pages. I find it easy to cocoon myself in a bubble and get lost on the page surrounded by already weary morning travelers. I find this is an excellent way to unravel myself graciously into my day. I feel a better person when I look up from the pages. I am more alert and more attentive to myself, and everything around me. I see writing Morning pages as a kind of tuning in.
Dusk In The Library
In the evenings if I am not home too late I love to head for my local library. Once the students have finished revising for their exams our local library becomes a quiet haven and sanctuary where I can retreat to and be creatively inspired. An hour spent in my local library at the end of a busy day can amount to 3-4 hours of quality work. I will often create a new to do list for the next day, finish a task that I have been procrastinating in a 30-minute block or start writing something I have been avoiding.
On the days when I am working from home and not coaching I will retreat on all day writing marathons to my favourite spot in my local library. I’m obsessed with securing the same writing spot that I’ll queue in front of the library doors ten or sometimes fifteen minutes earlier before the doors open. There’s something anchoring about settling down into my favourite spot, which sends out the signals to myself of my clear intention to write. 
Always Be Prepared
My family think I’m weird because I don’t seem to turn off as a writer. On the days when I’m relaxing these are often the days when grand ideas come to me. So wherever I go I’m never without some kind of instrument to write things down in whether it’s a notebook, journal or my iphone.
I remember many years ago reading a story by Paul Auster the novelist as a child meeting by chance his favourite baseball champion after a game and asking for his autograph and then being mortified as he didn’t have a pencil or a pen and neither did his hero. Why would we want to miss an opportunity of capturing the creative download that occurs constantly throughout our days?
The Creative Collective
One of the things I recognize is that the same creative ideas are dispersed to hundreds even thousands of people at the same time across the globe. What makes a difference is who acts on what. So the first part of taking action is to record the ideas somewhere where they won’t be forgotten.
Your Writing Practice Task
Here’s your task for today. If you don’t have a notebook then your task today is to buy yourself a notebook or set yourself up with a Notes App on your iphone or Smart phone.
Set aside ten minutes every day where you write as fast as you can any thoughts or ideas that are in your head.
Pull out your notebook whenever an idea or thought comes to you.
Look back over your week’s notes and recordings. Ask yourself what difference has working with a notebook or journal made to you and your work?
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Friday, April 26th, 2013
The tree I mention at 40 Josephine Avenue, SW2 (I know – Is that really a face peering back at us?)
The Perfect London Weekend: Radio Interview with Robert Elms.
Click here to Listen JackeeHolder_Interview
There’s nothing like a good old down to earth conversation. I was lucky to have one of those a few Saturdays ago when I was a radio guest on Robert Elm’s Lovely London Weekender Show on BBC Radio London. Click the link above to listen. It’s really fun.
Part of our conversation included sharing what I would do on a pleasure filled London weekend. I talked about all the different meals I would have (food is very important to me), the walks I love to take in nature (I love nature and London’s great parks) and my adventure on a three-seated motorbike visiting the sites and homes of many of London’s greatest trees with one of my favourite tree photographers and writer Thomas Pakenham. This really chuckled Elms.
During our conversation Robert shared a story with me that reminded me of how our stories are so interconnected. I talked about an idea I had for a television programme where you would research all the people who were still alive who over the years lived in the same house obviously at different times and bring them together for a big reunion and history of what it was like to live in the house. This was after finding out that I wasn’t actually born in a hospital as my lovely Mum had informed me but at no 39 Jeffrey’s rd in Clapham, London.
This prompted Robert to share a similar kind of story. It was a year after his Mum had passed away and he found himself in a part of London, Pimlico he wasn’t familiar with. But on seeing the name of the street he was standing on realized because he had been dealing with his mum’s affairs for the last year that he was actually standing on the very street she was born in. To top that he was in front of the house where she was born. Next thing the door opens and the present occupier comes out and in a few minutes Robert is invited inside to take a look. There are just some stories we can’t make up and I believe these stories are mirrored all over the world.
I went on to share with Robert how I’d come across a similar story in Real Simple magazine several years ago that I’d kept. It was written by A. Nanette Ansay and was a personal essay entitled, One Hundred Acres. Her grandmother had died in 1998 and her farm was sold to pay expensive medical expenses. The new owner remodeled the house but had made it clear that any of the author’s relatives – more than 200 people were free to wander around the orchard and the woods. But none of the relatives had taken up the offer.
“ In our minds, the house is exactly as it was. The barn smells of hay. The out buildings are intact. The flower beds are bursting with colour.”
“ Last spring my Uncle Artie, plowing in a nearby field decided he’d run up to my grandmother’s farm to get some water. To his surprise the door was locked. But he went around to the back where my grandmother always kept a spare key, removed it from the beneath the stone, filing a glass of water and let himself into the house.
He was standing at the sink, filing a glass of water, when it dawned on him that the plates in the sink were nothing like my grandmother’s. the entire sink, in fact, was different. So were the curtains. The furniture. Even the floor.
That’s when he heard a man’s voice say. “Uh, excuse me?”
Uncle Artie turned, and the present snapped back into place. My grandmother was gone, and he was in a stranger’s house.
Around the same time I’d discovered a similar story by Paul Auster which I know I have stashed somewhere in one of my files. I don’t think synchronicity strikes once but several times over. Seems like our stories are intricately connected and intertwined.
Do you know of a similar story or stories?
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Friday, April 26th, 2013
image copyright www.allblackwoman.com
I recently received a lovely message from a workshop participant who attended a workshop I ran on Journal writing in 2011 at the Brahma Kumaris. She has given me permission to share some of her message about the impact that the journal writing workshop had on her.
“It was also on that day and during a workshop with you that I made a decision to write at least two A4 pages every day. Soon after, and a year and a half later the most beautiful soul nurturing words have been flowing from a deeper place and onto to paper.
Usually, after a meditation, my mind steps aside and Joy comes through. Below is an excerpt that came through around the same time as the workshop with you in Willesden. “ – Jiro Jo
Below is an excerpt she shared with me:
Gradually know this, today is yours. Depend on no-one. There is love here for you. Deepen experience of me. Deny this not. By my name you will realise love in droves.
Forget nothing in you today.
My name is Joy.
Ask me.
Your questions are well.
i. What sort of books would you like me to write?
Plain. Simple. Instructive. Honest. Books with depth and matter. Tell not truth but remain in it for it will seep through in droves.
- ii. How will they be written?By my name in sequence and colour. They are tales of Joy and fortune, memory and fortitude. Pleasant and simple.
Ask another.
- iii. Will they be words I hear from you or will my mind make them up?No matter what, you are safe. Mind works for you. I am intent in categorizing subject matter for you. Use me as tool. Each tale will tell love and soul and be forever read. There is light and surety in them. They will illuminate and prosper all. Forever told.
- iv. Will they be written for children?They are medicine for the soul. All souls.
v. Will they be in the form of fiction or fact?
They will commence soon. Stories will be well written and construed in scriptures. Parables of the soul. They will play with joy and sorrow and fulfil all hearts.
- vi. What will the first one be called?Matters not. It will surprise you in time.
- vii. When will writing start?Today in your heart. Scriptures will illuminate all starting now.
In a time not long passed lived sorrow.
Courageous was she.
Small was she.
Known was she.
Felt was she.
She consumed all souls plighting their life with menace, woe and resent.
My name is money, and I helped.
I changed time for all and conjured nothing well.
I stepped on toes and crushed and devoured mountains.
I did well.
Then there’s me, fever.
I love Joy. I love to play with her and make her wet and cold.
I make all wince and beg.
What pleasure I get furnishing all.
Then there is worry, not to mention jealousy and tarnish, brother and thief.
We work well together, borrowing not to return.
We get up to maya and remain consistent wherever we go.
We charge all, and face none.
There is war in this place and we love it.
Delicious is here.
Morrow is thine.
Sanguine is coming.
Fruitless is formed.
Neglect, mischief, fancy without care for others, and greed all love to stay.
What can I say? It has begun. Express me in you. You will gain recognition in style and voice, in gesture and faith.
Be bold not.
Cover not.
Change not.
Testify to my name always.
Your Beloved,
Joy.
Nothing matters any more. We are one. We have won. Dedicate life to storytelling. This is your way.
There is a force that is here that will remain forevermore. This is so. Continue in my name.
My love,
enable this foothold.
Words by JOY.
Written by JIRO JO.
Writing can be a deeply intimate process that allows us to express ourselves from the inside out. When I was training as an Interfaith Minister I made a vow to establish a writing ministry as part of my work and I am slowly realising how deeply writing is now becoming a major part of my work. Jiro Jo’s words flow across the page and take her into a dialogue and inquiry about her writing and I love that she has found her writing practice through the process of meditation.
Many writers meditate before they write. It is a powerful way to access the rich terrain of your imagination and connect with the deeper interior world inside of you. Of course meditation also connects you to the breath and the breath is the way we can allow our writing to take us to the words, stories and images that we would not find through a normal, rational constricted way of thinking. So often words, images and stories can be so fragile and fleeting and lost in a moment if we are not grounded and present. By mindful breathing you are allowing yourself to be more concentrated. Mediation is like the spiders web that catches it all and brings it to the page. It will shift you from busy mind to quiet mind to a state where you are connected to the alpha brain waves which connects us to the state of flow.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone despite the pithy weather.
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Thursday, April 25th, 2013
There’s an actual book about procrastination entitled: A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits Of Disorder http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=A+perfect+Mess a perfect title both for this blog post and my office desk I avoid working from on most days.
So I was very heartened when a blog post from the fabulous Nina Grunfeld of Life Clubs www.lifeclubs.co.uk shared a great link in her blog post on April 22nd to an on line article about the spaces creative’s work from.
It was with a sense of relief when I read through the post to recognise that my disordered and cluttered office space, which on many levels feeds and drives my creativity, is also shared by many of the world’s more famous and well-known creative’s.
I love this picture of Nigella Lawson at work.
That’s me. If it was not for my organized, keep things clear, fastidious, Virgo partner our home would literally be a monument to books and magazines and if I could a tree growing in the living room would be great. In fact that was actually one of the images that was included in the online post.
A quick peek at the current perfect mess of my desk as of 8am this morning.
In the past I’ve done the good girl thing of tidying up the office, filing away the papers but my good deed lasts no longer than a week, maybe ten days at a push before the mess quickly claims back it’s space.
So now, I no longer expend my energies attempting to resist the mess, instead I let it be and just get on with the business of being creative.
There are the downfalls of course, like the times when a great quote that I know I wrote down somewhere on an index card gets lost, never to be found and of course it’s the perfect quote for an article or essay I’m writing about at the time.
But these moments believe it or not are far fewer than the hundreds of times I’ve remembered a story, or a quote or even a theme that I’ve been able to picture the book in my mind, the page it might be on (I’m strong on remembering whether a quote is located on the right or left hand of the page), go to my shelves, locate and open the book and retrieve the quote. No classification system needed here, just the pure, magical genius of I liken this to a ‘quote orgasm’. The feeling of achievement is so dammed satisfying.
To top it all off the headliners from the book, a Perfect Mess reads, “How crammed closets, cluttered offices, and on the fly-planning make the world a better place.” The book argues throughout that there are many hidden benefits of disorder. For messy creative’s like me this is comforting to know.
At the end of the day your creative space will be as individual and as original as your fingerprints. It’s yours to reflect exactly as you wish. What I’m learning is to reduce the judgments on what the space looks like and to expend my energies on the processes and learning that emerge form the many creative moments and outputs in my day. To me that is the real source of my creative engine.
The other thing I am realizing that my desk is not the place I feel most confident and comfortable working from. My desk reminds me too much of formality and having to get things right. I’m realizing that my desk is a space where I house and hold my papers and stuff. It’s not where I generate my best creative work.
You might be surprised to know that some of the places I work best are on trains, tubes and buses, somewhere out in nature, or in a café, sipping on a glass of wine (I know I should be drinking water).
When it comes to trains the longer the journey the better I work. I once arrived at Euston station after a 2 and a half hour journey and was astonished at how absorbed I had been in my writing that the whole journey had passed me by.
On journeys across London’s Victoria, Central and Jubilee tube lines I’ve birthed, edited, revised and proofed many of the posts, on the blogs on my website. I’m far more productive sometimes when on the move than when I’m at my desk.
One summer my desk became the lawns of Dulwich Park (it was one of those moments when the weather was so much more promising) and on another day I camped out for the day In Kew Gardens. When I need space and time to deepen I head for the primal nature of Richmond Park which is both creatively and spiritually uplifting.
More recently I’ve found a great spot to write from in my newly refurbished local library. But it means being first in line when the library opens its doors at 9am to secure my favourite writing spot.
To sign off I’ll leave you with a few more of the images from the online post showing the workplaces of the “famously creative’ and a link to Nina’s blog post http://www.lifeclubs.co.uk/footer-blog In my next post Ill include some images from two great books in my collection entitled, Writer’s Houses and Writer’s Desks.
Alexander Calder, Sculptor
Martin Amis, Writer
Will Self, Writer
Chip Kidd Book Cover Designer
Maybe one day my desk will look like this……….
Amanda Hesser, Food Writer
All images except image of Will Self’s desk are from the book: 40 Inspiring Workspaces Of The Famously Creative
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Monday, April 1st, 2013
A writer should never be without a notebook or pen. Memories arrive at any point and any time and we must be ready to capture them or at least headline them somewhere easy to find so we can return and retrieve them when the time is right. On one of my early morning last week the sight of a crowd of daffodils did just that. It jogged my memory about an early childhood school association with daffodils.
Back in the late sixties and seventies my primary school had a ritual of around the January of each new year of giving every child in the school a daffodil bulb to take home and care for. The idea being that we would care and tend to the bulb and watch it grow and then bring our specimen back to school on a specific day where it would be judged for just how well it had grown and blossomed.
It was a precarious business of course. Our bulbs (my siblings and I) would get tossed into the old conservatory behind the kitchen often dying or getting lost in the piles of stuff it had landed amongst. Sometimes if we were lucky it would bloom but not grow very tall or stunning. Every year I wished for the first prize, which was a certificate, which consisted of a full colour photo image of a glowing daffodil. Instead for most of my primary school years I would return home with a black and white version, smaller in size than the first prize version denoting second or third prize for effort and trying. 
Of course the same people seemed to win each year and now thinking about it, did they really grow those stunning daffodils or did a Mum or two nip down to the local garden centre and replace their languishing bulbs with these new editions? I would not have put it past a few determined parents and given many of the stories written about gardeners stealing and destroying other gardeners products before a country show there may well be a truth or two in there somewhere.
The real lesson here about memories are when we capture them on the blank page we never know until we get them down what they will turn into. I’ve used my daffodil memory for a blog post. But it could also be used for a personal essay, a part of a memoir or the starting point for a short story. There are many possibilities. Memories like the one I’ve just shared may seem insignificant but it is these small details that good stories are made of.
Walk with your notebook and pen, or if you’re like me my notebook on my iphone is a solid substitute for a notebook when on my travels.
With one day left to the Easter what childhood memories do you have about Easter?
Yesterday I was jolted back in time with a memory of waking up early on Good Friday’s and running down the road to Broomfield Bakery where we would queue for a bakers dozen of freshly baked hot crossed buns. Mum would slice and place a layer of butter inside and then warm them in the oven. I still can recall the strong aromas of cinnamon and sultana’s that made up part of the recipe and of how once the buns where heated they melted on your tongue. Even to this day I find it an insult if someone offers me a cold hot cross bun to eat. Even though as an adult I am no longer as fond of hot cross buns as I was as a child I will eat them purely to reconnect with that warm memory that I have of them and Easter.
What childhood memory could you write about today as part of today’s writing practice?
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Monday, April 1st, 2013
There’s nothing like a simple ritual to start your day before you write. How about a pot of invigorating mint tea in a refreshing white pot served in a white crisp cup and saucer?
What rituals get you in the mood for writing?
Many of the images I share on the blogs are taken with my iphone, this one included. Images stimulate my imagination. Images ease me into writing, bypassing my inner critic, making writing feel natural and easy. In my new book 49 Ways To Write Yourself Way I share how you can use visual writing prompts to get writing.
There’s also any earlier post on how to use visual writing prompts in an early blog post on this blog.
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Saturday, March 9th, 2013
I first met Spiritual teacher, coach and writer Debbie Ford when I went on a retreat led by American Life Coach and author Cheryl Richardson in New Mexico in 2000. As part of her retreat programme Cheryl introduced us to an emerging spiritual teacher by the name of Debbie Ford who led the group through a spiritual process she called the Shadow Process. I remember the afternoon workshop as being intense and hard-hitting, which went against Ford’s stylish and almost model like demeanor.
It was not long before Debbie was a major teacher on the spiritual international teachers platforms. Sharing and headlining events with the likes of Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson and many other well established spiritual teachers. For years she was one of my must listen authors on Hay House radio. She was straight talking and possessed a no nonsense quality I appreciated perhaps influenced by her own journey of recovery from a drugs and alcohol addiction.
We met again almost ten years later when she came to speak at Alternatives in the UK for the first time about three years ago. I remember her as a warm and really open teacher who stayed behind until she had taken every photo and signed very book after a full on one-day workshop. This is not a quality or generosity we see in all of our speakers and her kindness stayed with me.
I was sad when I heard last year that she revealed on the Oprah OWN TV Super Soul Sunday series that she had been battling cancer for many over ten years and even sadder when I heard she had finally lost her battle and had passed away last month.
In her time she has done an amazing work from founding the Ford Institute For Transformational Learning where she trained people in the Shadow process to leaving behind an impressive body of work, which includes nine best-selling books.
My favourite Debbie Ford product was the Best Year Of Your Life card deck published by Hay House, that I still find extremely powerful and accurate every time I work with it even now.
None of us has the power to determine when our time is up and how we will depart. But we do have the power when we are alive to decide on the legacy and the impact we will leave behind us.
With the celebration of International Women’s day yesterday on March 8th I would like to remember and thank Debbie Ford for her TRANSFORMATIONAL work, for all the wisdom and healing she provided through her work on the Shadow process. Her work here may be done but her contribution and impact will not be forgotten. Her legacy I am sure will live on.
In remembrance of Debbie Ford (October 1st 1955-February 17th 2013).
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Monday, February 25th, 2013
A few years ago I came across a book on procrastination entitled A Perfect Mess. It was a good book, which talked about how for many e-creative types and thinkers a desk that looks like the one below is actually organized chaos to the creative thinker and hell to the organized structured individual.
The desk in the above image actually belonged to the scientist Einstein. It doesn’t look too dissimilar to the desk I am working from at the moment. Well I don’t really work from my desk because I can’t get to my desk. But I have noticed that for the last ten days I’ve had to leave the messy desk and just focus my energy and attention on the work that needed to get done. It’s a miracle that the laptop is mobile so I can literally find clear spaces in my home to relocate to and work from.
I’m aware though that any thoughts or images that occur in my head about my desk even when I am nowhere near it instantly drains my energy but so does the long list of items to be completed on my to do list. In coaching we refer to physical objects in this condition as tolerations. I’m also noticing how my desktop on my laptop seems to be mirroring what the messy desk looks like in physical reality. Not good I say to myself.
- The challenge right now is should I clear the desk as a matter of priority? This will take several attempts before a real shift is experienced and involve several hours of work on my part.
- Or should I just continue being productive and creative and ignore the mess as much as I can until I can find the space and time to clear?
These are the questions I am faced with on a weekly and even more often daily basis. And I choose to respond differently at different times. This week definitely feels like it will be time to clear the desk, create order and file things away. But next week may see a rapid return to the perfect mess. It’s like a dance some days it’s the tango and other days it’s the waltz.
I feel better today for seeing this image of Einstein’s desk. Maybe he too recognized that there are days when it’s more important to just get on with it and ignore the mess.
I think there’s something exciting and alluring about mess and something calming and affirming about order. I can’t seem to choose between the two?
- Do I need to?
- What’s your working environment like right now and how is it helping or hindering your productivity, writing or creativity right now?
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