Aaron Hollman's Blog

Like many creative people, I find my self all too often surrounded in messes of my own making. This drives my wife nuts since she is, by nature, a clean and orderly person. Over most of my adult life, I have made efforts to try to be clean and orderly, most of the time failing. This does not mean that I have not experienced the creative rush achieved by a newly cleaned work area.

I will probably never be one of those people who is always cleaned and organized, and that is ok with me,  but I do enjoy the feeling of a freshly cleaned work area. It seems to me that when I clean my work area, I am more focused on work and less focused on being, well, less focused.

I believe that for me, personally, there are a few key reasons for this. First of all, having a clean work area reduces my distractions. I can’t obsess and think about the insurance bill laying on my desk that I have to pay next week or the book I haven’t put away yet that I pick up and thumb through, for four hours.

Another reason is very similar to the last, a clean area eliminates the thought of having to clean my work area. That is one thing that I have accomplished that is no longer an excuse for getting other work done. Now I can sit down and write what needs to be written.

A clean area keeps eyes from wandering. Again, this is related to the distractions theory, but instead of focusing on stuff that needs to be done, I focus on the ‘pretty colors  I see floating around on the sea of chaos that is my desk. No clutter, no colors to draw the eyes away from where they need to be focused.

A clean area instills a sense of feng-shui. I never used to be a big believer in feng-shui, but more recently, I find that I am agreeing with it more and more; I can tell its benefits from the way my furniture is arranged in my office. That reminds me, I need to move my desk back to where it was, it just isn’t working where its at.

I wish I were an orderly person, I like the feeling I get from order, but I am not. I suppose that is human nature, we always want to be someone we’re not.

Thoughts or opinions are welcome.

aaron

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Motivation Monday

Here is Motivational Monday’s tip.

Cleaning with little effort. The trick is simple, if you stick with it.

First, create a schedule. A schedule that works for me is immediately after work, but before I want to really unwind for the rest of the evening. Allow yourself at least half an hour in this scheduled slot of time (but I don’t recommend longer than an hour). When you have decided on a time and duration, only clean for that time, but no longer.

When you clean, focus on one room. Pick up stuff first, like that sock laying under the desk or the glass sitting on it and put them away. While transporting the items you picked up, look around and see if there is anything that needs to go where you are going, another sock, a bag of peanuts that goes to the kitchen, and grab them as well. Do the same thing on your way back.

Before you realize it, your first room will be picked up and ready for the fine detail work, vacuuming, dusting, etc. Once this room is done, move on to the next room.

This next part is very important. When your time is up, quit cleaning and relax for the evening, there is tomorrow to continue the war against dirtiness, but, for today, you’ve won the battle.

Variations and Tips:

- Start slow. Start with half an hour and work your way up. Especially if you’re cleaning habits are far from perfect.

- The next day after finishing one room, begin again with that same room, picking up the stuff that has accumulated in the last 24 hours.

- Only do the heavy cleaning once a week after it has been done the first time unless it is really necessary.

- Rooms that need more attention are kitchens and bathrooms. Rooms that need less attention are offices and living rooms. Needs vary with families though.

- Integrate exercise by finding ways to take more trips up and down the stairs. This may involve longer cleaning times.

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