Hi folks!
I posted a photo on Instagram that prompted a few questions.
Here’s the photo:
So the questions are about how do I label my paper sorter and what is in those cubbies and on my clipboards?
What you are seeing here is the result of how I inspire myself in my home office. There is no secret formula to how I label my cubbies. At least, there is no secret formula that has ever worked for me. Maybe you can figure out how to label your cubbies in a way that will inspire your writing productivity. What I have reconciled myself to is the idea that my paper sorter is for filing papers I may want to find in the future. And then mostly I don’t look at them.
So, yes, I keep all of my Dream Team notes. I print out inspiration for future article ideas, when I come across it. I have a couple of cubbies with printouts of interviews with me and quotes folks have favored, etc.
But most days I don’t look at any of it. So I would say that these cubbies are not driving my creativity as much as my creativity is filling my cubbies.
On the clipboards above the paper sorter, I can easily print and clip a quote I come across that I fancy. I do that sometimes. I also sometimes combine quotes I like with images like those postcard-sized images to the left.
I hang my published articles on two clothes lines for a few reasons. One, it inspires me to see a steady stream of my work hanging up in my office.
Two, I can see how I’m doing each month at a glance depending on how full or not full my clotheslines are. I guess this habit is working because my clothesline is usually pretty full.
Three, I really appreciate the professional publishers and editors I work with, so displaying my articles allows me to appreciate the work they did to get my writing to look so awesome.
I change these articles out each month, when new ones come out in print. And then old ones go into a three-inch three-ring binder, which I fill annually.
You can’t see it in this photo, so I’ll post another, but I hang covers of magazines I’ve written for all around the top of my office walls. How can I feel anything but successful if I walk in and see these every day?
The things you see in these pictures are helpful for sorting and displaying the results of my process but they are not the full story.
One thing you can’t see in this photo or in any photo in my current possession is how much joy I experience in my creative process while I am writing.
Any insights you might be looking for in trying to closely examine my photo are not in the photo itself. I have a wall full of articles and covers and stacks of professional results because I take joy in my creative process. It’s the joy that fuels the productivity and the joy that has inspired so many different results.
I felt that same joy while writing a brand new piece today. I enjoyed myself thoroughly. Soon the published version of my new piece will be up on the wall. That motivates me.
But don’t follow what I do too closely. Your wall should look different. The cubbies in your paper sorter are going to be labeled in the way you feel called to label them. And it’s not going to be my cat in your photo. It’s going to be yours, I hope. (That’s Smudge sleeping, in the photo above, by the way. And that’s Aspen, sleeping in the photo below. I also have a cat sleeping in the closet and probably one sleeping in the nearby bathroom.)
The bottom line is: go straight to where the joy is in your creative process and spend more time there. If you do, and you relish the feeling, and you let it carry you forward, you too will create a cool office like mine. Only it will look like yours.
Also:
- Quit groups that are claiming they can make you a better writer.
- Stop reading articles that promise insider secrets.
- Don’t take classes or courses or webinars that promise you systems or formulas for success.
- Tap into your desire to grow as a professional and stay there.
- Become more curious about what excites, inspires, and intrigues you.
Hang around more with people like me, who are not afraid to tell you that if you admire my results, maybe you haven’t spent enough time working on your own.
If you had, you would be sitting in your office appreciating your own creative inspiration. Right?
You think you are admiring the set up of my office. But probably you are wishing you could invest more time in creating your own results.
What would your inspired office look like? I bet you will think it was awesome!
I invested quite a bit of time, money and professionalism into mine. And I continue to on an ongoing basis.
Which sparks a few more tips:
- Get off the social media and go get in your creative process.
- Spend time there creating your own rituals, habits, and routines.
- When you find some that work for you, repeat them. When they stop working, switch them up.
- Hang out with people like me who want you to be more professional than you already are because professionalism is crucial and cool.
If writing (or whatever your creative practice is) isn’t joyful for you, I might be able to help.
Check out the offerings in my school. I have a reputation for kicking writers in the butt more than for holding their hands and I don’t plan on changing my approach any time soon.
What you may not realize about my approach to training writers, if you have not taken a course with me in a while, is my approach has evolved and improved. Writers who take classes with me learn how to inspire themselves from inside themselves. Once you learn that, you will never run out of joyful creative experiences.
Maybe you need a kick in the butt. I think we all do from time to time. But it should always be this kind of gentle reminder—a reminder to spend more time in your joy and less time scouring the Internet for secrets.
You know where the secrets are?
They are in your joy.
Go find them!
If you liked this post, I recently wrote another on “10 Ways To Recharge Your Office After Summer Vacation.” Check it out!
And don’t miss my post, “Paper-lovers, Practical Home Office Products To Inspire Your Next Organizational Update,” right here.
So much inspiration, so little time! Please subscribe to the Create, Share, Prosper Blog and sign up for The Prosperous Creative Newsletter for exclusive discounts you won’t find elsewhere. Click on the Enter School tab above to put your creativity to prosperous use right now. Join my monthly pep talk video series because all the other prosperous writers are doing it. Like words? Check out my Etsy shop. Thanks for reading and thanks for sharing this post with fellow creatives!
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