The Organized Writer

I have been a SARK follower for years and years.
I always imagined that she lived in a cluttered, messy, colorful, wild space full of toys and tzatchkes to give her inspiration (of course).
In her books, she is often discussing procrastination and avoidance...and how to avoid avoidance, so I just assumed she was disorganized.
So when I went to the book signing for her new book last night, I asked her. I wanted to know what her clutter issues were.
It was a big surprise to me to find out the truth:

She confessed to the crowd that she is coming out:
She is creative AND she is organized... like uber-organized!
She said, quote - " I am wildly creative AND organized."
"If I ever get married, it will be at someplace like The Container Store."
And this is from a woman who is about as right brainy as it gets!!
YOU CAN BE CREATIVE AND ORGANIZED!

SARK also said she doesn't talk about it and I inferred that it is because being organized is sometimes mis-perceived as NOT being creative.

More organizing quotes from SARK, the queen of napping and juiciness:

On time: "There is no such thing as not enough time. It's an invention of the mind."

On perfectionism: "Allow it - then allow it to change form. Do more things badly and see that there is no consequence and no one cares."

On getting help from others: We can't solve the problem with the same mind that created the problem in the first place" - quoting Einstein's phrase:
"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."

Photo is of SARK blessing me with her big purple crayon (as in Harold and the Purple Crayon.)
Between the rainbow and the blessing I just know I'm going to have an interesting year!

SARK Juicy Pens Thirsty Paper

SARK's new book - Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper comes out today - I am standing at my door waiting for the Brown Van from UPS to show up with my very own copy (yes I'm an Amazon luvr).

If you don't know who SARK is and you're reading this blog, you may want to take a look at her colorful and whimsical (and sometimes very serious) books. They are written in hand with watercolor accents that amuse and inspire.
Her voice was one of the first voices I read that I felt gave me permission to let my artsy side bak out even though I had long ago put it aside for work and kids.

I stumbled across her book Succulent Wild Woman when I was working at CNN 15 years ago and saw the press kit in the hallway being given away (the book had already been taken). I quickly ran out to get the book and have been a fan ever since.

She's coming to my home town in a couple weeks on her book tour and I will be there and bring some friends. I was lucky enough to catch her on the wild woman tour as well.

What does any of this have to do with organizing???
Well - I use the books as muses to keep my inner juicy juices flowing. And I have more like them including journals and coloring books.
My creativity often gets sparked when I can see one thing and expand on it or adapt it for another use.
So this means having books to organize, and planning to spend time looking through them - which is a whole 'nother bunch of bananas for right brainers. More to come.

On Creativity

From Wikipedia:

Creativity (or "creativeness") is a mental process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the creative mind between existing ideas or concepts.

From a scientific point of view, the products of creative thought (sometimes referred to as divergent thought) are usually considered to have both originality and appropriateness. An alternative, more everyday conception of creativity is that it is simply the act of making something new.

The stages of the creative process:
From ArtLex

1. Finding or formulating a problem. George Kneller (American psychologist) called this stage "first insight."
2. Researching and drawing from life experiences (memory), networking, etc. This stage is variously called "discovery" and "saturation."
3. Mulling over the problem in a sort of chaos of ideas and knowledge, letting go of certainties (forgetting). Jacob Getzel (American psychologist) called this stage "incubation" — engaging the intuitive, non-sequential, or global thinking at the core of creativity.
4. One or more ideas surface. This is also called "immersion" and "illumination."
5. The idea is tested as a potential solution to the problem. Getzel called this "verification." This final stage often involves revision — conscious structuring and editing of created material.
   

When you don't allow creativity to flourish:

• "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." --Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

• "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." --Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

• "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." --Western Union internal memo, 1876.

• "The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?" --David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

• "The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible." --A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)

• "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" --H. M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.

• "If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this." --Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M "Post-It" Notepads.

• "Aeroplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." --Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.

• "Everything that can be invented has been invented." --Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.

Creative Thinkers:

• "Creativity is the ability to see relationships where none exist." -- Thomas Disch

• "There is no such thing as a failed experiment, only experiments with unexpected outcomes." -- Buckminster Fuller

• "Whenever you see a successful business someone once made a courageous decision" - - Peter F Drucker.

• "Standing still is the fastest way of moving backwards in a rapidly changing world. Imagination is the highest kite one can fly" -- Lauren Bacall.
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• "Instead of pouring knowledge into people's heads, we need to help them grind a new set of eyeglasses so that we can see the world in a new way." -- J S Brown.

Read more quotes at Mycoted