Three Creative Studios

Last week, here and on the MQResource site, we discussed Creative Discipline. I’m continuing that thought this week but focusing more on the discipline side. You can only be so creative without discipline. I impose discipline with to do lists.

Yes, lists, plural. Like potato chips, one is not enough! Each has a different focus but they all relate to each other because each wants some of my time. They all also support the BIG LIST of goals. Today I’ll share how I keep my lists and my opinions about the advantages of list making. You can read the first part of the article with links about making lists on MQResource. This article is about how I use lists.

Overriding everything are my life goals. This list has everything from retirement timelines, our investment goals to my personal creativity goals. It’s a short list and very simple. Life goals, from my perspective, are about priorities and we really can only manage a few of them. I keep this list private and don’t really share it with anyone. A Life Goal List helps me determine what’s important for me to do each month/week/day and also help me manage where and how I spend money.

My long-term and short-term to do lists need to eventually add up to meeting one or more of the above goals.

For work, I have project plans for the individual projects that I manage but I also use Outlook tasks to track daily tasks that need to be done. I review the list at the beginning of the day to focus my work and I update it at the end of each day. Having a current work list allows me to walk out of the office without work on my mind. I don’t need to remember anything because it’s all written down! I can now turn my brain toward home and my creative side.

I have used several different tools for my home/personal and creative lists. I have used paper, Word documents, my blog and am currently using a spreadsheet in Google Docs. Because it’s on Google Docs I can access it from any computer and add/update as I think of things. The tool doesn’t matter. You have to find the tool that best fits your style. Some people need to be able to make a pencil line through the item and see it “marked off”. Some just want to see the page/screen empty. If your list isn’t working for you, find another tool. I recently purchased a Droid phone and am starting to check out the many to do list apps that are available.

My friend, Barbara, will always use paper. She used to have a deck of index cards that she kept every day. Now she uses a Franklin Planner. But the point is that she writes a new list every morning and she accomplishes an incredible amount of things every day. She always has.

I have a list for “Home” things that really covers everything that is not work-related or related to my creative side. I try not to make this overwhelming. For example, over the Christmas break I wanted to go through the house on my “Goodwill tour” to clean out closets, the basement and everything else and get rid of things I didn’t need. If I had listed “clear out excess stuff”, I would still be working on that one task. Instead I put a 1-hour task on every day to clear out something. At the end of the week I was not actually done but I had created 2 truckloads of stuff for Goodwill. Everything else can wait until the next clear out project. The house looked better than it did the week before so my mission was accomplished! Don’t let your list become overwhelming and keep tasks to manageable increments.

My “Creative” list includes everything for my fabric dyeing business, 3 Creative Studios and my current creative projects. This article was on the list. I have a separate list of projects in process that aren’t receiving any attention. That list is really just there to attempt to keep me from starting new projects! It doesn’t work so well – that’s not a “to do” list, it’s a “didn’t do” list! I work my Creative list the same as the Home list. Tasks are identified in manageable time increments and I spread large tasks over days or weeks.

For me, keeping lists simply helps me focus my energies so that I am using my time in the most productive way possible. Otherwise, I am off starting new projects and just creating even more tasks!

How do you keep your lists? Come on over to the 3CS Forum or MQResources Forum and let us know.