Chaos

The imagination may be unlimited (& chaotic)

but it needs a structured format if it is to thrive.

Pages of tips, ideas and suggestions on taking the chaos of original creativity (or existing confusion!) and making it work for you

Disorganised

The mind is a chaotic place, as is the world around us. Chaos is a fundamental aspect of life, everything starts in a chaotic state until some type of order is given to it. Chaos can also creep unseen into any unguarded place and is often considered something that needs to be put under firm control without mercy.
However … chaos is also the starting point for inspiration and imagination. It can be put to good use wherever you want to turn disorder into order. Such as

• Where you have a project you want to work on (writing, designing …)
• Where you want to make something happen (an event or activity)   
• Where you need to work on something that involves other people   

Tips for every stage of chaos evolution

Organised

These articles are full of tips for helping you through the process of sorting through the chaos of new ideas or existing confusion and bringing order to them. They help you to understand what you are trying to do, then show you ways of implementing and ordering them, finally a few tips on keeping them organised.

These topics follow the process of turning chaos into order, but can be read in isolation.

1. Organising yourself – Getting yourself organised. Having everything you need before you start the task (Tips given below)
2. What are you trying to achieve? – What is the Objective? What are you searching from the chaos you are starting with? What is the ‘hoped for’ final outcome of your thinking 
3. Identifying what you need to do  – This involves Planning for what you need to do, taking the key aspects of what you need to do and in what order to get there.  
4. Making sure you have everything you need – The Preparation that you require before you get started. Making sure you have all that you need to hand. 
5. Making it happen – The Implementation of the changes, . Getting everything to that final state of completion.
6. Keeping it organised – Controlling changes! How to manage future changes, whether in thought, action or deeds  

Tips on getting yourself ready for the challenge ahead

Tip 1 – Before you can organise chaos you need to first organise yourself

Or in other words, do your own preparation first. This is true whether you are just doing some administration work (filing, proofreading a page …) or planning some major changes that will affect a range of different items, such as sorting out a story plot, or redesigning the functionality of some rooms.

Preparation may be as simple as clearing a space on your desk or as complex as getting an office/computer system set up ready for the task. Even if it is as simple as clearing a space on a desk, it is still worth confirming that you are prepared – after all you may have left your cup of coffee just out of arms reach.

Tip 2 – The more complex or disorganised the task, the more preparation required

This may sound like a very simple statement, but if you do not do this up front then there is a good chance that you will encounter problems later when you realise that something was overlooked which could result in a lot of rework if it requires a redesign.

Take a quick look at the overall objective and you should be able to get an idea of the extent of preparation you are going to require. If the task has a lot of complexity to it or is very disorganised, then you may need to prepare for doing the preparation… such as switching off the phone and locking the door so you are not disturbed – or getting that cup of coffee within arms reach.  

Tip 3 – If the task has multiple items, you may need more than one preparation strategy

If your task has more than one type of item to be organised then it will be easier to split up the preparation method according to the task requirements.

Imagination example: If you are a writer you may need to update the overall history, add in some new items, as well as rewrite one of the chapters. This may require finding the current history (from an archive?), preparing for a new item to be added (blank page?), and finding the chapter you are going to rewrite (from current article?)

Real world example: if you want an inventory of the furniture in an office as well as redesign the layout in one area, you may need to design a spreadsheet suitable to record the furniture as well drawing a plan of the area you want to rearrange (and cutting out little shapes of furniture to go with it if you want to).

Tip 4 – Make a note of the current set up before you begin reorganising it

This is especially important for any large reorganisation requirements. It may be a good idea to take a note of what you have and how it is currently all arranged before you start changing anything. This way you will have a record of how everything was before the reorganisation started, allowing you to return to it for referencing and tracking the changes you have made – very useful if something goes wrong and you need to restart!

 Jenny Maryl ~  Inspiring the Imagination ~ Contact Me