Project Share Day 18: clearing the clutter
I share in Day 16 how clearing the physical clutter brings clarity and calm to my mental/emotional clutter. This mantra shows up many times and daily in my life.
This is how it shows up at work. Papers distract me. I’m not a fan of looking for paperwork, I need to know where something is at any given moment. It’s this way due to the nature of my early jobs, producer, assistant, coordinator. I need to be ready.
In the photo industry, everything happens at a rapid pace. Being ready and ahead of things helps, as does “going with the flow”. My interaction at MCA is working with 4 art directors and the head of the department. My solution for keeping projects clear is to color code their job folders. Todd blue, Kenny orange, Tim red, etc. I repeat, I don’t like papers, yet I love folders with labels. Color coding folders is a something that I repeat at EVERY job. It’s what makes things clear for me. A few times colleagues ask if I’m working on a project, and the answer is yes, it’s just my desk is super neat.
It’s always the same at school or work. Tidy to a fault. Being tidy or in an organizational state clears my ADHD ever chatting mind and keeps me in focus of my responsibilities to others and helps get my job done. Now at home that’s a little different.
At home I’m a little bit of a mess. I’m neat and tidy and yet I do create chaos. I am lazy. Dishes can live in the sink for longer periods of time, laundry does not get done as often as I would like, and folders are all over my apartment. I have hooks in my apartment to house the clothes that I don’t put back. It’s been a while since clothes are everywhere; I use the hooks to keep the apartment tidy. Then at some point during the week I find myself overwhelming anxious and start to organize and clean my apartment. I feel calmness in the process of tidying up and returning to a ground zero state.
It might not seem much to the outside eye, however it is overwhelming in my head. The chatter in my head does not stop as often as I would like, so developing systems and tricks since I am young helps me keep order and flow and my responsibilities in check. This is why I overcompensate sometimes. I don’t like to get things wrong or let anyone down. This is why my face can look serious (or confused) much of the time. I’m in my head. Clarity and calmness is important to me and I have to work a little extra to be there. (I’m still working on the facial expressions.)
You have my word that I’m out of my head and over with you starting now 
