I am, at times, great big old slob. When I am involved in a task that has anything to do with creating something, like a craft project – I am solely concentrating on the task. I gather stuff from all over and have it in front of me in case I could use it. I end up with a great completed project, but also with a huge mess of glue and paper and tools to clean up and put away. I don’t take the time to put things back in their place as I go along so I often even run out of actual workspace by the time I am done. This drove me crazy so I took time to examine the situation to try to refine my process and correct the problem. With that came the light bulb moment – this simply IS my creative process. I am in the flow, as they say, and any attempt to introduce a tidying up step midstream actually interferes with this flow. For this type of work I must shut off my organized, logical, left brain and just let the mess happen and reorganize later.

I hear the control freak in you now saying poppycock – she is just making excuses. And though I am no stranger to self delusion and practice self indulgence whenever I can, I really have examined this. For those other types of tasks, like bill paying, for example, which is methodical rather than creative, I have specific systems that keep me organized throughout the process and I don’t end up with a mess to clean up.

So your own personal process may change depending on the type of task you are doing:

* Is the task creative versus methodical in nature?
– If you are doing accounting tasks you would want to be precise and methodical – ditto for brain surgery! But if you are making a collage or even brainstorming, you can be – and it may help to be – looser in your process.

* Is the type of system critical to the outcome?
– It may not matter if your home kitchen becomes a mess during the cooking process as long as the food comes out well (restaurants excluded for obvious reasons). But if you are sloppy while you are painting a room, it will most likely affect the result – think drips and paint footprints.

So next time your family is upset that scrapbooking supplies are strewn all over the dining room table, just tell them that your art requires you to embrace your inner slob.