A year ago: creativity and organization

A year ago I was blogging about the idea that creativity can be enhanced by working in an organized environment. It's common sense that it's easier to be creative when your workspace isn't a giant mess.

In the past year, I've worked with photographers, visual artists and graphic artists who require an organized space in order to do the creative work that is their livelihood and their passion. I was able to help them by identifying what items in their spaces weren't essential to their creative process and figuring out ways to use storage efficiently, since artists tend to have lots of materials associated with current, future and past projects. One important thing I could give these clients was a sense of control over their space, so that they could shape it the way they wanted, rather than feeling overwhelmed by the stuff they'd accumulated, stuff that they thought would be a creative outlet but in a disorganized state caused them more paralysis than freedom.

Here are my posts on creativity and organization, the three elements of workplace organization and a specific case study applying my theories to organizing a writer's workspace.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by gordonplant

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com