Prioritizing Tasks & Activities: Sometimes the Boring Stuff is the Container of the Well of Creativity

There's an old saying. "It is easy to see what a person's true beliefs are--simply look at their behaviors."

The same logic applies to determining what a person's true priorities are. It is easy to see what one's priorities are by watching what one does. For example, I say creative writing is my priority. But how much time do I actually spend (creative) writing? Am I "Facebooking" instead? Am I frittering away writing time with other non-important time wasters?

Occasionally time wasting activities are helpful. For example, when I'm stuck on a plot problem, I can engage in a computer game that doesn't require much intellectual energy, while working on my plot issue subconsciously. However, if I want to accomplish writing goals, I need to monitor time wasting activities to ensure they don't eat up all my writing time.

That's the obvious. Everyone knows this, right?

What may be less obvious

Being There for Your Dreams: Organizing the Creative Life

I have learned if I want to succeed in pouring energy and time into my creative dreams and goals on a consistent and sustained basis, I must first organize. It sounds contrary to that unruly middle-of-the-night flash of inspiration that gets pegged as creative genius. Certainly I have often worked at a messy desk in a messy study, burning with inspiration for thirty-six hours straight before passing out for two days. In retrospect, even those creative binges were supported and mused into being by previous disciplined, organized, sustainable endeavors.

So what do I mean by organizing?