Tidy House, Tidy Mind

We cannot dodge life and its hiccups. With us freshly moved, the house is still in a bit of chaos, and that on its own is putting my goals at a standstill. My hybrid work desk is set up in my bedroom, as before, and the surroundings at the moment are all but inspiring. Yet. So, when I am trying to get creative, I try and change my surroundings - as you may have noticed. The library in the good old days used to be very quiet... Now it is more like daycare than a library. They never seem to be big enough.

My mum used to say: "tidy house, tidy mind" and it's so true. It’s amazing how just looking around and seeing a mess, makes our brain just goes: “Inspiration loading... Error: Bespoke environment required.”

I now have a pre-goal task, which is to get me back to a comfortable environment (literally) to go back to writing and CPD to progress. Writing is only about life inspiration, not about uninspired and boring checklists. Tasks and priorities list that we are committed to accomplishing.

But as the environment gets more organised and everything easier to find, I start finding new working spots that are near enough satisfying, but the best time is early, when everybody is still in bed and before our house-bound scheduled tasks start. To be honest, this is not a huge effort for me, as I’m happy with 7 hours of sleep and I usually get up very early in the morning anyway (you know, old age and all). I find it easier to concentrate if there’s silence around. I like to be able to hear myself thinking.

Every time I get a chance I add another sentence to my blog drafts, but my available time is never long enough for my creativity to fully flow through. Of course, there's always only a very small window of opportunity. I'm often having to squeeze it and witty-cut it short. I add a bit here, a bit there, in the car on my lunch break or in the mornings, if I’m on a later shift. As the house gets tidier, the inspiration will start flowing in. There is just too much going on at the moment. Even repurposing texts require a certain focus to amend, and adjust the text.

I am starting to consider recording my thoughts. This way I can make quick notes of my ideas, and not just dismiss them. It will surely be easier to just transcribe the recording as I work on it. If I just set a quick icon on my phone’s home screen I will reduce friction and make note-taking easier for me. Now there’s a thought!