Want to be creative? Believe it or not, you need to be organized first

by Kathleen Martin

My desk is a tribute to the fluorescent sticky note. I have "NOW!" scrawled across dozens of them—the ones stuck on my phone are more "now" than the ones stuck to other things. The cheery bits of colour exemplify the mind of a writer: creative, free-spirited, somewhat random.

Well, in any case, they typify someone who needs a better organizational system. And, perhaps surprisingly, a better organizational system can fuel creativity.

As a columnist who is occasionally late, I'm not sure if I should be relieved or scared that my peek into the burgeoning science of personal organization confirmed that struggles with project management are pervasive.

"We're busyaholics," says Colette Robicheau, a professional organizer and the president of Halifax's Organize Anything, whose company helps homemakers and CEOs alike develop effective organizational systems. We live in a culture that suggests more is better: more information, more projects, more activities, more money, more stuff. "It means that we have to function at such a level that we don't take the time to organize," says Robicheau.

The reasons why people are disorganized are as varied as people themselves. Some have cognitive difficulties. Some may never have been taught organizational skills (which, Robicheau assures me, can be learned). Others may previously have had flawless organizational systems that have been rendered chaotic because of some sort of traumatic event. And some people, explains Robicheau, are afraid of being organized.

Afraid?

"They wonder what it might say about them," says Robicheau. "They have preconceived ideas about what an organized person is like. People might think they are anal. Or they worry that organization might force them into rigidity, that it might detract from their creativity, their individuality."

David Allen, the best-selling author of Getting Things Done, takes it a step further. He says that we protect our ego by keeping ourselves buried under a giant pile of "urgent" things to do. "If we maintain confusion and amorphousness," says Allen, "we can pretend that we could be smart, powerful, and purposefully effective—but we never have to prove it to ourselves. 'Oh, I could express much more of my magnificence, creativity, brilliance, and dynamism, but because my importance has me so burdened with the responsibilities it must bear, I just can't demonstrate it at the moment.' "

Control over all of the commitments in our lives actually unlocks our personal and business potential. Understanding everything you have to do helps you learn better what you can do. It helps you see, in the sum total of your commitments, whether or not you are doing what you actually want. It gives you freedom and space. "People have misconceptions about the source of creativity," says Robicheau.

Harvard Business School professor Teresa Amabile studied 238 people working on creative projects to understand the experiences and processes that led to creative breakthroughs. For example, it turns out that working under pressure—relying on the adrenaline rush of a deadline (ahem...) to drive projects—doesn't help with creativity. It's just the opposite, in fact.

"People were the least creative when they were fighting the clock," says Amabile. "In fact, we found a kind of time-pressure hangover—when people were working under great pressure, their creativity went down not only on that day but the next two days as well. Creativity requires an incubation period; people need time to soak in a problem and let the ideas bubble up."

What time pressure does do, however, is force you to focus on a project. (Multi-tasking is absolutely not effective.) Focus is vital to creativity. According to Allen, you can generate this kind of focus more easily anytime if you know exactly what you have to do. His suggestions seem simple:

1. Get every "to do" in your world out of your head and put them in one "idea-capturing tool," such as a notebook. Make sure you always have the notebook with you so you can write things down when they come up. Do not, Allen stresses, keep commitments solely in your head.

2. Look at each "to do" and decide if it needs to be addressed now or in the future. Don't try to do it unless it will only take a few minutes to finish entirely; otherwise, you'll get distracted and start multi-tasking. Write down the single next action you need to move the project to completion.

3. Keep your "head-dump" list current. You need to be able to trust that you aren't missing anything. Get into the habit of deciding what action is required "when stuff shows up, not when it blows up," says Allen.

4. Organize reminders of your projects and next actions in appropriate categories (work, home, someday, maybe later, etc.) and review them weekly.

It turns out that my naked Post-it-free phone is black and grey. My getting-things-done binder is a satisfying lime green; the action lists use interesting fonts. My next article is due in a week. I'm hopeful.

Kathleen Martin is a freelance journalist based in Halifax. She can be reached at masthead@ns.sympatico.ca.