Like many people, I’ve been at home designing a new workspace. A merely functioning workplace is not enough though, because I want create the conditions I need to keep making my best work. So I want that space to help me think, and get my ideas out, to create beautiful things.
A head full of ideas is like having a little creature hiding in a shady spot in a big forest, and somehow, I have to coax it out. I have work to do, but focus is elusive and priorities are hard to pin down – like disturbed birds in that forest canopy.
At the moment, I’m working on a lovely poster design for the Natural History Museum made from a David Attenborough quote. It goes with the design above as a pair. Apart from enormous gratitude for having such a lovely commission to soak in, I’m also noticing what conditions I need to do my best work – how to encourage that little ideas creature out of hiding, into a safe clearing to play.
Here’s what I’ve been finding helpful:
Rituals and routines have changed, been lost, set up fresh, so proactive work on redesigning these helps me settle. I found this (free) reflective exercise really good to work through.
Acknowledge the importance of having a serene space in which to think straight. Some people need busyness. I crave order and serenity – a clearing in the dense forest. So I make that.
Accept that my mind is under high pressure at the moment, and difficulty concentrating is completely understandable. I’m falling back on the super-useful Pomodoro technique – 25 minutes to get the first step done. Pause. 25 minutes for step two. Gently does it. Don’t be hard on myself.
Yes, I’m Zoomed out, but some accountability can work wonders. Plus, it’s just nice chatting things over. So I plan for this.
When I really can’t concentrate, I don’t fight. Instead, I turn to something completely different – making NHS scrubs, for example – read about that here.
WALK. Motion is lotion, for one thing, and gives the mind time to churn. It helps me get unstuck. I know we’re not meant to loiter around outside, but this week I’ve had some very tricky things on my mind so have taken long walks in my local park, and if it’s very quiet, I’ve snuck off to lie down for a few moments under a particular pine tree. Breathing. Looking up into space. And through its glossy needles catching evening sun, there they were – the swifts are back! High up, agile, sharp, excitable. One of my favourite moments of the natural year. I am lifted up, energised, calmed, reassured by them, and walk back home with their squeals above me.
And with them whirling overhead, the swifts remind me that everything has a season, will ebb and flow, will follow the warmth of the sun, that ‘this too shall pass’ and—just like the swifts—I will find my way.
We will make it happen.
{Today’s Soundtrack: Rose Smith – Changes}