Minimalist Living: Decluttering for Joy, Health, and Creativity by Genevieve Parker Hill Read Free Book Online Page A

from Ellen Ullman in Close to the Machine: “The disorder of the desk, the floor; the yellow Post-it notes everywhere; the whiteboards covered with scrawl: all this is the outward manifestation of the messiness of human thought.’ I'm not a bi g ‘things organized neatly’ guy; I'm more of a "things spread out everywhere" guy.”
    You can still be a minimalist if you share Kleon’s attitude towards creativity and clutter. If you prefer to work in an environment that's filled with “the outward manifestation of the messiness of human thought,” then your minimalist focus will be on decluttering your time and your thoughts so you create.
     
    Making Time
    When I lived in Los Angeles as an aspiring screenwriter, many of my friends were also writers who had day jobs. During our off hours, we would spend time chipping away at our latest screenplays in the hopes of improving our craft and, eventually, seeing our name under “written by” on the screen in a sold-out movie theater. Any time this group of friends would get together, there would always be a few who couldn’t make it because they were at home writing. “____ is writing tonight” was such a ubiquitous excuse that it became a joke and a euphemism for just about any other excuse someone could have for not showing up at a social event.
    Even though once in a while “I have to write tonight,” was an excuse, the idea of clearing time for creativity is a great one. One key to clearing time in your schedule for creativity is to learn to use these two phrases:
No thank you.
Maybe — I’ll think about it.
    I notice that creative and productive people have a lot of passion about a wide variety of topics and projects. That passion is wonderful, but it can lead to waste and burnout if it’s not focused on three projects or fewer at any given time. If you commit to projects, requests, and ideas willy-nilly, there will be one of two possible outcomes. The first is that you will forget, flake out, or drop the ball on some of these projects. That leads to you letting yourself down, or disappointing others if it was a team project. The second potential outcome, if you carry out all of your projects and commitments while continuing to pile on more, is that you will feel exhausted, drained, too-busy, bored, unfulfilled, trapped, and possibly resentful. So many of us are used to pleasing others at the cost of nurturing our own creativity. We agree to take part in too many activities and projects. That’s why, no matter how excited you are about a new idea, learning to say “no” or “maybe” is pivotal to living a peaceful, joyful, creative life as a minimalist.
    Once it becomes easy to say “maybe,” you can make the gradual adjustment to being a person who agreeably says “no” all the time. Practice aloud when you're alone:
    “No thank you. I have to paint.”
    “No thank you. I will be practicing the ukulele at that time.”
    “No thank you. I will be creating my six-pack abs then.”
    Of course, if it’s something you truly want to do, if every cell in your body is screaming, “Yes! You must do this!” then, by all means, say “maybe.” Fit this advice to your personality. If it’s rare for you to feel your entire being telling you that you must do something, then congratulations, you already have a minimalist filter. By all means, say yes if you know you truly want to do something. But if “A million times yes!” is your routine response, learn to say “no,” or “maybe” more frequently so that you can take time to nurture your creative spirit.
    Creating Mental Space
    A friend shared a beautiful metaphor with me about decluttering your mental space. We talked a little about this in Chapter Two, but I'd like to go into more detail here. Imagine your brain as a beautiful, calm harbor. You are the harbor master, so you can choose what ships can anchor in the harbor. You can’t control which ships sail by, but you can choose not to let certain