Dance With Your Inner Slacker

When you read about the journeys people make from not doing something to doing it successfully, you rarely read about the slack days - those days when the soon to be successful person just can't get motivated. I'd like to read a whole book devoted to this subject, if only so I don't feel so bad about my own slow times. For me this usually comes right after some big push involving a lot of brain-work and preparation. This week, that was preparing for the Soiree and today is my unnerving day of foggy wandering, without a clear destination in my sights. So I figured I would share here some of the techniques I use to get myself in gear when I have no time to slow down, but my body and most of my mind are not fully aware of this. Most of these techniques are not my own invention, but I've long since forgotten where I sourced them. I've read hundreds of productivity and organizational books as a young artist trying to get a handle on the chaos; life from the perspective of many artists seems to be one chaotic event after another and to move to actually completing what you want to offer the world, you have to learn some new methods.

One thing that helps me to get back on track quickly is that I've already simplified my life dramatically (and continue to do so more and more) - my belongings no longer fight for my attention and so my mind has more peace and is able to concentrate better because my visual perception isn't clotted with distraction. So I'm clearer than I was, even on days like this, when it is not working at peak performance. Second, I give myself a little slack. I already know it's not going to be a high productivity day and so I won't fight against it too hard. In a strange way, this makes it more productive because whatever intuitive part of my mind is now in control breathes a little sigh of relief for not having to fight a war for a little down time. I'll take a little extra time with my coffee this morning, read a few more articles on the web and generally lazy about a little longer than usual.

But then, I'll periodically get up and putter. I use the fifteen minute rule - I choose a project - any project I see that needs doing on days like this - and I set a timer for fifteen minutes and just work on it that long. This often (but not always) leads to me just working through the fifteen minutes and finishing the project. If it doesn't, I stop and switch to something else. Another thing I do on days like today is something I first learned from Leo Babauta from Zen Habits http://zenhabits.net/ - I go through my to do list and choose just the three most important things that need to be done today. I tell myself that all I need to do are these three important tasks. I will, of course, end up doing more. But on these days, I lie to my own mind and it believes me every time.

I have all my current projects in one of three places - I have an idea file for things that haven't really begun to look do-able to me yet, and a project folder - for things that don't have a lot of steps or reference material associated with them, and then project boxes (everything from shoe-box to bank box or more) in which I keep those projects that have lots of stuff I need to reference. I keep these all together so that I can just grab the appropriate item and not have to think too much about the steps. When I get an idea for one of the projects, I put it in the appropriate box. The individual boxes are a swirl of chaos if you dare to look inside,  but knowing that all the chaos associated with that one project lives in that box is a lifeline on days like this when I may only be using one percent of my brain power.

I think the thing to remember is to not be too obsessive about anything. If there's a down day, even when it's imperative that the work be done, not pushing too hard seems to have an overall better effect than our often touted high-productivity work-ethic. Down time likely has an unknown necessity just like sleep. So cheers to you reading this during my sleepwalking day. May all yours be mildly productive and satisfying in some deeper mysterious way on your path to your own dreams.

Give More Than You Take, and Leave It Better Than You Found It

Throughout my own journey and the part that included parenting two people into adulthood (one down and one almost done), I've tried to think of pithy mottoes I could offer that they might remember and that will make their lives easier. I remember the realizations I've had in my life - discovering that getting into work five minutes early and leaving five minutes late might initially feel like the employer is getting something undeserved from me, but it made the rest of my life a whole lot easier. One of the things I tell my kids is to give more than you take and this ended up as a directive on my art project too. I've wrestled a lot with whether this sets them (and me) up for some sort of martyrdom, and have come to the conclusion that it does not. In the same way that giving that extra ten minutes to an employer makes them look the other way when you have an inevitable delay, when you routinely give more, even the coldest person has a moment of pause when you are in need. And let's face it, none of us will ever attain pure autonomy.

But more than some quid pro quo ziglaresque approach, giving more than you take makes the world better - even if you're the only one doing it and it's just your small share floating out there all alone - I believe it makes a difference. And when I realized this and began living my life this way, I started to really attract better people into my world. And that led to feeling like I could set up some boundaries that kept those who don't play by those rules at the right distance from what I was doing. And that changed everything.

So today I'm cleaning this home I've been renting. I've approached all my interactions with my landlord from the perspective of giving more than I took, and he recently told me that this has been the easiest rental he's ever had - I agreed. I'm cleaning from the unseen tops of the ceiling nooks down to scrubbing the corners of the baseboards - a little every day until will leave. I'm replacing the toilet seat, even though it had a crack in it before we got here, and the towel bar that was missing when we arrived. And you know, these things cost me pennies where I picked them up at garage sales and thrift shops but they won me more than a good reference, they've won me a friend. When I want to settle down again, I know who to call. And I know that he will help me. And he knows he can ask for my help too - perhaps with a job he has cleaning out rental units that were left in bad condition.

So I'll pass on here these two mottoes that my family lives by now - Give more than you take and Leave it better than you found it. If the world worked that way, everyone would have plenty, and everything around us would be better and better every day. Since not everyone practices this, those of us who do keep it all from going horribly wrong - because if everyone practiced its opposite, we'd live in a dump and feel terrified of everyone all the time.And I just can't live that way.



Update on the Soiree:
Lovely people turned out and took a whole bunch of my stuff. I purposefully did not take any of the things they brought since I'm trying to get down to just the belongings that can fit in an RV and the smallest storage unit available - that's the goal.

The bread turned out way better than I expected and everyone left with a full belly, although the Stone Soup did end up with a lot more onions than anything else - still, it was very good. On a personal note, Sangria is very very easy to get very very tipsy on. Must remember this. It's just so smooth going down that you keep thinking you're drinking juice. It's a whole lot more fun watching people look through your stuff when you are giving it away for free than it is when you're selling it. Everyone is happy like it's Christmas morning. I'll definitely do a fun swap instead of ever suffering through the petty competitiveness of a yard sale ever again. 

Of Bread and Soup and Gifting Trees

A big part of the inspiration to start this adventure was a project that I was working on and thought I might get a grant to take around the country. I build these Abundance Trees, which are essentially gifting trees that also act as a room in which to discuss the world around us - my hope is that these trees will eventually be built in every city and people will use their interior sitting area to discuss creative solutions to the problems that plague our society. The trees themselves are made from discarded branches and other recycled pieces and it was our intention to install the trees in areas that were hardest hit by the recession - following a list of places where home foreclosures were highest and hitting a few tent cities and such along the way. Homelessness has always seemed such a bizarre issue to me. We have empty houses and buildings that sit that way because there is more to be made by the owners in tax write-offs than by renting them to those in need for less than market value.

So it's sort of fitting that we're beginning this adventure with a Stone Soup Swap and that's just what we're doing today. Everyone is bringing one piece of fruit for the drink and one veggie for the soup and stuff to swap to start our entry into homelessness. I keep thinking to myself that this cannot be that hard - finding creative solutions to problems. I think we've just been brainwashed into thinking there are only these few, very competitive ways of doing anything and so perhaps the first steps to creative thinking is exploring any other way than the first thing that comes to our minds as a solution. Perhaps I should have had a swap meet before I had a sale.


Note:
For anyone who likes baking bread - check out the More With Less Cookbook - it's a Mennonite cookbook that not only has a bounty of bread recipes, but also has some great how tos on making all sorts of stuff you never thought you could from scratch, like ketchup, mayo, grape-nuts and English muffins. None of this stuff is particularly difficult. Try it. You can get the book on Amazon for a song. Well, a few dollars and a song. They probably wouldn't actually take the song either. But I would - come sing for me and I'll trade you my book as soon as I write down my favorite recipes and take your number in case I forget some.