I did a little Spring Cleaning over the course of last week. I seem to gravitate to wanting to clean out stuff that's been sitting around to long and throw open the windows and doors for fresh air naturally.
So when Alison Stanfield’s newsletter came in this morning, it was synchronicity! These smart, easy-to-do suggestions for cleaning up the studio this spring could apply to your sewing room, home, office or anywhere you follow your dreams and create the life you want.
Alison suggests:
"1. Clean out your studio. Throw out dried-up paints and other unusable materials that take up space; catalogue 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 your 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. "
While I haven't accomplished all of these tasks yet, I feel lighter and less bogged down, more in touch with the natural rhythm of things. I like the energy shift in my house, in my studio/office and in getting neglected projects and chores done and off the tattered and dog-eared To-Do list.
To sign up for Alison Stanfield's weekly Art Marketing Action newletter or read her blog, ArtBiz Blog, visit Artbiz Coach.
