It’s spring! And we’re emerging from hibernation here in the Northern Hemisphere. We’ve been cooped up for months and may be a little weary of our surroundings. It’s the perfect time to shed the weight. Not THAT weight. The weight of things . . . of junk. It’s time for spring cleaning.
Imagine how good you’ll feel when you can find what you need. Sense the joy of not having to step over piles or avoid opening closet doors because you’re afraid something will fall out! And envision your delight when your studio and office spaces are clean and you can follow up on opportunities in a timely manner. Here are seven areas to give your attention to.
1. Clean out your studio. Throw out dried-up paints and other unusable materials that take up space; catalog and organize your artwork; dust the shelves; and mop the floors. Give yourself a deadline to organize any material you have been collecting that has piled up without a specific home.
2. Clean out your “ideas.” Most artists collect ideas, which are actually tangible things like magazine articles or newspaper clippings. You think you may get to them one day, but somehow they keep winding up at the bottom of piles. Getting rid of them will provide mental and physical space for fresher ideas. For the paperless ideas that keep haunting you, journal about them so that they’re not lost or forgotten.
3. Clean out your schedule. Get rid of items you don’t have to do in order to make room for what you really want in your life.
4. Clean off your desk. Make your office a place where you want to do business, where you want to spend the 50% of your time that you should be devoting to marketing yourself and your work. Create systems so that your workspace never gets out of control again.
5. Clean out your paper files. We all have files that have become unruly and ones we know deep down that we no longer have to keep. Get rid of the stuff.
6. Clean out the files in your computer as well. Consolidate and make computer folders with headings similar to your hard-copy folders so that they are easy to find.
7. Clean out your opportunities. There are so many things waiting to take up your time and energy. You can’t do it all. You can’t say Yes to everything. Let go of the commitments that aren’t serving you and trust that someone more suitable is waiting to take responsibility for them.
KNOW THIS———-~> Spring cleaning makes room for better things.
THINK ABOUT THIS—~> If you have been hanging on to something for a long time hoping to get to it one day, chances are that you will never miss it. You’re probably looking for something better.
DO THIS————~> Clean out! Clean off!
