Organizing Creative Professionals: Sorted

Bargains, and the bargains we make

I'm not going to deny it: there's a certain thrill to getting a bargain. I'm the master of finding the specific item I want, then uttering my catchphrase, "Let me see if I can find it cheaper online." (Sometimes I can, sometimes I can't. I think I'm just hooked on Google.)

It makes perfect economic sense for us to rejoice in finding an item whose price is below its perceived value; there are even graphs in Microeconomics textbooks that demonstrate our happiness at increasing our value-to-cost ratio.

But there's a danger in picking up too many bargains, or in getting so caught up in that value-to-cost thing that you don't consider whether you need or truly want the item in question. Because there's a lot more to "cost" than what you pay at the register.

When you acquire anything, you're actually striking a bargain: "In exchange for the value this item will bring me, I will pay its acquisition cost and the cost of keeping and maintaining it, in space, time, energy and/or money." It's easy to forget that second level of cost when we're focused on the first level of cost, or the value of the item. But that second level can get overwhelming, especially as more items are acquired.

And then there's a third level of cost to consider: the "opportunity costs" of acquiring that item instead of another item or nothing at all. For instance, if you spend $20 a week on "bargains," at the end of a year, that adds up to $1000 that can't be spent on improving or growing your business, and it's $1000 that can't be put into savings or paying down debt.

So, when you look at the cost of something—especially if it's marked "50% off!" or "Closeout!"—remember that the cost on the label isn't giving you the complete picture. When you add together the keeping and maintaining costs, the opportunity costs and the immediate cost of acquisition, you might find that a "bargain" is actually a horrible deal.

What about you? Have you ever purchased a "bargain" that turned into an expensive paperweight? Vent about it in the comments!

Organizing your desk? Talk to the hand

I'm going to be working with a local reporter on an article about desk organization soon, and one of the desks to be made over belongs to a very proud leftie. At first, I reviewed my desk organizing tips to make sure none of them were right-hand-centric, but I soon realized that while there might be some lingering anti-leftie sentiment in society at large (i.e., "sinister" comes from the Latin word for "left"), organizing principles are quite neutral when it comes to hands.

No matter which hand you use the most, you can customize your desktop to suit your natural inclinations.

1. Leave open space on the side of your dominant hand. Whichever hand you write with will need space to ... well, write things. If you're working on a computer and need to jot something down, it's much easier and faster, and less disturbing to your workflow, to extend your dominant arm a bit than to turn in your chair and write something on your nondominant side.

2. Have paper and writing implements on your dominant side. This kinda follows from point 1 there. The easier it is to capture a thought, the more likely that thought is to be captured thoroughly. 

3. Put your phone on the side of your nondominant hand. This leaves your dominant hand free to make notes (or play video poker) while you're on the phone, and saves you the trouble of transferring the handset and its cord over from your dominant side.

4. Keep your most important and frequently accessed files in the file drawer on the side of your dominant hand. If you go into certain file folders more than once a week, the time and flow interruption you'll save by keeping them on your dominant side can really add up.

5. Desktop files can go on either side. Personally, I find that keeping my In/Out/To File sorter and my SwiftFile on my nondominant side works well, but there aren't any hard and fast rules for this one.

I recently found a guide for purchasing an ergonomic computer desk that has some great diagrams showing the extent of most people's easy reach and grasping reach, and that info can serve as a guide for how far back on your desk to put the items you need the most. You can check it out here (the diagrams are halfway down the page).

As with any organizing principles, these can be modified to fit your needs. Remember, organizing is very personal; what matters is that your system works for you. So play around with the position of your desk items until you find the best arrangement for your hands and your working style.

Are there any lefties out there who've been frustrated by rightie-based desks? Let's talk hands in the comments!

The curse of "awesome-ism"

Here's a question guaranteed to make many creatives wince: How much time do you spend creating vs. getting ready to create? You know, seeking out the most sublime color for that project or making sure you've got the absolute right software plugin for that web page or pitching about for the most evocative way to phrase that idea—how much time could you spend on that stuff?

For many creative folks, the answer is "just about forever." And I think that's because of a form of perfectionism that strikes creatives that I've decided to call "awesome-ism."

Creatives do seek out "the perfect" in our pursuits, but unlike the precision implied by the word "perfectionism," we shoot for the most original, most unexpected, most game-changing "awesome" stuff in our work.

Of course, awesome-ism is still perfectionism, and it has the same effects: procrastination, paralysis, anxiety. With creatives, it has the added effects of self-doubt; the more we grasp for awesomeness, the more pedestrian our current efforts look.

With creatives more than other folks, I think some of the answer to reducing awesome-ism might lie in embracing the act of creating rather than the results of what you did and truly giving yourself permission to "fail." 

Because, honestly, a creative failure is far more interesting and worthwhile than a paralyzed creator who can't produce anything. Holding yourself to a ridiculous standard of earth-shaking creativity doesn't serve the progress of your art, your business or your growth as a creator.

To borrow an aphorism, the "awesome" can be the enemy of the good just as much as the "perfect."

What about you? Have you felt yourself paralyzed by awesome-ism? Let me know in the comments!

"Hoarders"

You already know I'm all about organizing and studying human behavior, but you might not know I'm a bit of a fan of reality TV (which can also be seen as studying human behavior). So the show "Hoarders" on A&E would seem to be the perfect storm of fascination for me.

But after watching a few episodes, I've decided that although the show's intentions may be good, its approach is almost doomed to failure in terms of reforming hoarders.

Each show profiles two hoarders whose lives are in immediate turmoil as a result of the hoarding: facing eviction, foreclosure, loss of a relationship or removal of family members. The show provides the services of an organizer or a therapist (hoarder's choice) and a cleaning crew—but they only provide them for two days.

Now, two days with an organizer and a cleaning crew would be fine for people who have clutter as a result of not knowing how to organize or consolidating households or inheriting a bunch of stuff. But while those situations can certainly apply to hoarders, they have an additional component in the form of an anxiety disorder that profoundly distorts the importance of items, making a keep/sell/toss decision that might be simple to most people into an agonizing test for the hoarder.

In addition to their anxiety, hoarders also tend to have an oversized ability to imagine uses for items, and this might be why creative folks can be at a higher risk for hoarding than non-creative folks.

One of the most awesome aspects of creativity is our imaginations: we can envision uses for just about anything. However, when that wonderful imagination isn't paired with the ability to recognize what's important to us and our work, it can lead to mounting piles of potential projects.

And when that generosity of imagination is combined with a genetic tendency toward anxiety and/or depression, you have the makings of a hoarder.

While the A&E show focuses on hoarders who are in dire straits for maximum drama, the greatest likelihood for genuine change comes when someone recognizes their hoarding tendencies early and seeks out counseling for anxiety, depression and/or obsessive-compulsive disorder (which hoarding is believed to be a form of).

Ironically, A&E ran a show this summer called "Obsessed" that followed people with OCD who were given three to six months of therapy for their disorder. Some of them were hoarders, and the slow and steady approach worked very well for them. I really wish A&E would use that format for the hoarders on their eponymous show, and I'm sad to see that they've chosen short-term makeover drama instead of meaningful help.

If you think you might be a hoarder (or you know someone who is), please consider counseling for yourself or them. Also, many medium-to-large cities have task forces on hoarding that can provide resources to keep hoarding situations from reaching the eviction/removal level.

(Note: I wrote a column for Inside Business magazine about hoarding at work, but I wanted to talk more about the human impact here.)

What about you folks? Have you been watching the show? If so, what are your thoughts? Have you had any personal experience with hoarding? Please talk about it in the comments.