What I’ve been organizing lately - A writer’s head

Two weeks ago when so many of you graciously replied to my request for feedback on what you want from The Inspired Office this year, you told me you are intrigued by my concept of “organizing your head,” but aren’t clear on what it means.  To organize a space is to organize your head.  Sometimes though, the areas that are most in need of organizing can’t be seen, because they’re in our heads.

I pick up on a need for this type of strategizing when someone tells me any of the following:

- they’re spinning their wheels
- they’re carrying around too much in their heads
- their projects are dragging on
- they let things continually slip through the cracks
- they just need to feel more in control of their days

The results are as varied as the requests.

In this case, a client had a number of writing projects that she had been struggling to complete. In digging deeper, I realized that with so many pieces at so many stages of completion, she never knew which one to pick-up.  They felt like a scramble and we somehow needed to unify them.  After much conversation about the intricacies of her process, we settled on what she calls “completion pages.”  She now has one “completion page” per writing project.  Each page visually tracks her status on the writing project, using the same mile markers for each.  She can lay them out on a table to pick-up a project based on its place along the completion journey and her corresponding mood or energy level.  No need to carry around all of this in her head!

I’ve shared a very rough draft and we’ll clean them up in time.  As with most solutions like this, it needs to be tested over the weeks, then perfected, then beautified!

What are you carrying around in your head that would feel organized if it were on paper? Please share in the comments!