Great info here. I completely agree with what every one has said here, you cannot necessarily take someone else’s system or daily routines and apply them to your own life. Unfortunately it isn’t that easy or we would all be perfectly organized! We are all so different.

My husband drives me crazy because he has a routine for everything throughout his entire day and heaven forbid I ask him to do anything in a different order! He has found routines that work for him and they make him happy.

I, on the other hand, have a really hard time sticking to routines and like to be more spontaneous. I get swept away with my own enthusiasm and forget my to do list. That is where I get into trouble, really. I do need some structure or routines or I end up in chaos.

As long as I discipline myself to stick to just a FEW daily routines, I can keep life from falling apart around me without feeling overwhelmed by structure and restrictions. And I have to find some visual satisfaction and personal reward in my routines and organizational habits to keep me focused on them. Being creative, I need beauty to be a part of it (no ugly files or boring notebooks) and I need to see that it is contributing to my life as a whole, not just another thing on my TO DO list.

I am the type who can easily end up with a bunch of pretty notebooks that I don’t use. That is where I need to see how the notebooks fit into the kind of life I want and make them a part of my daily routine. Then I use my notebooks because I can see the benefit to me and they become a part of my day (they have to become a habit). The busier I become with my business the more disciplined I am having to be in order to have the life I want.

I think Ariane’s class sounds really interesting, I need to check that out! Thanks for all the great ideas!

What you are describing about yourself is EXACTLY what I find to be a pattern with ALL the creative personality types I work with.

Highly Creative people do not do well trying to use methods that work for other people.

They always have to tweak and customize their systems AND they have to update or change their organizing systems more often than other people. There are really good reasons for this. One is that THEY actually change more often than other people do. Another is that they literally get “bored” with their systems easily. The creative brain type is ALWAYS seeing possibilities in things and can actually feel a lot of stress in environments that don’t change.

“Creative” is not the same as “artistic” It does not mean that you have to be able to draw, or sing or play music, etc. If you write, create computer programs, or even design new systems of any kind, you are probably a creative type.

Designing anything “new” is creative and requires a different way of thinking and “being” in the world that is actually diametrically opposed to the kind of thinking and “being” it takes to “restore order” or “maintain order” There is so much more to this topic that I have discovered in my work with creative types and from being one myself.

I am currently working on developing “The Creative Person’s Guide to Overcoming Disorganization – Their Way” I did a free teleclass on the “Link between Creativity and Disorganization” and will be posting the recording and announcing a new teleclass series this week.

I think you would really resonate with the things I talk about in the recording and invite you and your readers who have always wondered why it’s so hard for them to develop organizing “routines” to listen to the class. I would post the URL here but I don’t want your SPAM bot to delete my comment : )

If you would like the link to listen free please feel free to email me or visit my blog. Thanks!