Winter Chores

This year one of my main goals is to get organized and streamline my office and studio. There is a great book called Organizing From The Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern that is very helpful in this respect. This book is especially appealing to me because her approach is both creative and accessible. One of her techniques is to set up your environment in stations, according to task. So, for instance, in my studio I have a painting station, a framing station, a storage area, a cleaning station, and so on. Within those stations, every tool or supply has a "home" so that you always know where to find it. That is the idea, any way, and when you set it up like that from the start, it really does work!

But when I moved to the new studio I kind of got away from that, and instead just set up as quickly as possible to get started with my painting. This worked for a while, but now my calendar is filling up with travel plans, (Key West countdown: 2 weeks!!), the upcoming workshop and the outdoor art show. Organization is not an option, it really is a requirement. It is worth taking that extra bit of time to set things up systematically so that I can work smarter, not harder.

This week is also tax week, which I always rather dread even though I have an okay system and can usually get through just fine. I guess it's just that I already do a lot of desk and computer work with my website design and maintenance. It's a challenge to focus my left brain on papers, reports, and numbers when I have a painting of Venice sitting on my easel calling me.

-Jennifer Young; Vibrant Landscapes
www.jenniferyoung.com
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