Do You Recognise the 7 Early Warning Signs of an Unorganized Writer?

“Three Rules of Work: Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

Albert Einstein

Do You Recognise the 7 Early Warning Signs of an Unorganized Writer?

1. The file cabinet has tipped over from the overload of paper, mail, and “I’ll get to that next week” leads and you counterbalanced it with another pile of paper.

2. To you, a clean working surface means which pile is less likely to tip when you set your notebook on it.

3. The dust bunnies behind your monitor have formed a union and now you are knitting argyle sweaters for them as part of your union negotiations.

4. When you went to fold the laundry pile in your office you were dismayed to find leg warmers and ripped t-shirts went out of style.

5. Your Writer’s Market book is from 1997 and you still haven’t cracked the cover.

6. All of your pencils are tinged blue because in 1987 you sharpened your eye liner with the electric pencil sharpener and still haven’t replaced them.

7. You just found the writing receipts your accountant asked for before he did ten years for the Enron scandal.

Another reminder that a clutter-free work area really helps the creative process. Especially when the clutter forces you to stop working to attend to yet another pile. Today,take an hour and clean up your workspace, the distraction of unpaid bills, junk mail and tiny argyle sweaters can take away from your words. That’s my job today, I’ll let you know if it makes a difference this week. Now get back to work! Dust Bunnies UNITE! (I was forced to write the dust bunnies unite slogan as part of the negotiations…just wanted to let you know for full disclosure)

Lovingly,

The Writing Nag
and a pack of rabid rabbits