Keep Your Exhaust Pipes Clear

I just emptied my office garbage and recycling, as I do every single
friday. I think this is one of the most important things to help with
having a tidy, organized environment: always having your garbage and
recycling within arms reach, and almost all the time less than 50% full.
If they're more full than that, my brain starts to generate subconscious
resistance to putting things in there; if I have to force it down onto the
heap, I am more likely to absent-mindedly put my kleenex or whatever on my
desk (getting up and emptying it as needed would be even worse, for the
large disruption of flow) If there's not a regular, well-defined set of
processes taking garbage and recycling from your hand to out of the house
or office, crap will build up at the different stages, ultimately leading
to clutter and paralysis right where you don't want it, like sewage
backing up. When it's working good on the other hand, in the middle of a
work flow you can just reach over and instantly eliminate some piece of
clutter from your space and your mind, forever. So even when other
cleaning jobs fall by the wayside, I empty those wastepaper baskets like
clockwork!

A Few More Quotations about Feedback

Giving your opinion of their opinion extends the conversation, makes them
too invested in putting their mark on the script, and it commits you
mentally to changes you may later realize aren't really what you want. You
should be in receive mode, not implement mode, at this point. Flip the
switch back from "listen" to "do" after the conversation, and after you've
had time to let it all sink in. - Jane Espenson

Don't confuse asking for your friends and colleagues' advice with
listening to unsolicited advice. Input from fellow artists is always
great, and it never dilutes your vision, because you only need to listen
to the helpful stuff. - Patton Oswalt

Cleaning Cycles, or, Filth Wizard No More

Ok so I haven't fully tried this one out, but I'm excited about the
idea and so I want to get it down.

I am a slob, but I want to fake not being one. My plan is to use my own
likes and quirks, well documented on this blog, to make sure all those
cleaning jobs get done, and regularly. And to do that with hardly using
any willpower at all - I need 99% of that for my work. And not guilt
either.

Basically how it's going to work is that I made a master list of jobs, and
I've divided them into categories by how often I need to do them. So in
the end each job has its own period, in days and weeks. I will program a
reminder into my palm pilot to repeat at that period, and whenever one
pops up it's going to become a top priority todo item until I actually do
it.

The other important part is that I am writing out *exactly* what each job
involves, in as many steps as it takes, just like the cleanup sign I saw
posted behind the counter at the Tim Hortons. Lazy and easily defeated, I
like to know when a job will be done; exactly what it will require; and to
have very simple concrete steps I can follow. Here's an example of one:

Washing the Floor
NEED
All-purpose cleaner

SUGGESTED TIME
Just after tidy, sweep-up. Monday evening.

STEPS
- Fill up bucket of water in bathtub halfway, with suggested amount of
all-purpose cleaner
- All chairs and other objects in bedroom onto bed
- Put everything onto couch, in bedroom or in hall (or bathroom). Shoes
onto table, move table.
- Mop livingroom and kitchen
- Spot clean any kitchen bits that weren't gotten with paper towels or
washcloth
- Empty bucket and refill, with detergent
- Mop bedroom
- Let dry for 1 hour, dump out bucket
- Put everything back

ESTIMATED TIME 30 mins + 1 hour to dry + 10 minutes returning objects

NOT
under bed
Too far under desk

ALTERNATIVE TECHNIQUES
None (yet)

And so on, for all the jobs.

Further decisions I made to make this system work:

* Cleaning is separate from tidying. Too often my ambitions start to
snowball, and then I will abruptly lose energy in the middle, which is why
I've had a tesselation of clothes on my bedroom floor (that used to be in
my closet, which I was cleaning out) for the last 5 days. So I can e.g.
wash the floor without actually tidying up, by putting everything into a
huge pile. And then even redistributing it on the floor afterwards if I
wish.

* I will stagger the first time I am doing each of these jobs, so as they
repeat they will tend not to pop up in the same weeks.

* If I do a job earlier than expected, I don't reset the counter, but get
to wait till the next scheduled time, so a bit of a break from that job.

* I am not telling you the length of the cycles, because some of them may
be embarassing. The purpose is to start out with easy, long cycles, and
then tighten up as I find I can actually do it. Even so all the
frequencies are much, much higher than my old, shame-based system.

* I will decide on some things that I won't clean, ever, until I move out
or there is a royal visit. This is mostly a list of things that I won't
clean underneath or behind.

* Also, I don't have to do any cleaning that's not on the list.

* I won't sweat it if things don't get perfectly clean, as long as I carry
out the steps. I hate how there are a few little particles even after I
mop (at least the way I mop), but it's still a big improvement over non
mopping.

* All these records I'm keeping in electronic form, so I can continually
modify them with experience. In particular tricky cleaning jobs like the
stove drip pans, I might try one method one time and switch to another
another time, until I find one that works for me. The knowledge is
cumulative and stored not in my head, so I don't ever have to think about
cleaning supplies when I'm not doing the job.

If this works out, I will still be the guy who, at any given time, can't
be sure that his t-shirt is jam free, but whose apartment is fit for
company - with a 15 minute head start, and a certain amount of
closet-cramming.