I can see why she wrote on the walls: they key to unlocking your creativity & productivity

Photo by KROMKRATHOG- freedigitalphotos.net

Several years ago, I had a manic boss. Definition: showing wild and apparently deranged excitement and energy (reference: Google).

Once she even stood behind me as I was typing a memo she was reciting and went so far as to tell me where every comma should go and when to backspace when I made the occasional and unfortunate typ-o.

In a word, she was crazy. One donut short of a dozen. She got a lot done, but wildly. It's the kind of person that makes you tired after 5 seconds of being around them.

One morning as we were planning an upcoming large event, she began a group brainstorming session. Since we didn't have any white boards up in our new office building yet, we all had notepads at the ready to compile our lists.

As the ideas began to flow, I could see her wild eyes looking frantically for a place to write. IT HAD TO BE UP! IT HAD TO BE BIG! IT HAD TO BE VISIBLE! And with the lack of white boards, all at once she threw the chairs back and began writing on the walls. ON THE BRAND NEW OFFICE BUILDING WHITE PAINTED WALLS. With a pencil, but still. You could hear a quiet, but audible gasp in the room, and then all at once, we resumed working because it was, after all, our manic boss. We should expect nothing less.

Since that day, I can't deny, that I've had an unrelenting itch to write on the walls. I'll admit, as a creative type, I have my own kind of mania. Ideas that pop into my head at all hours. Notebooks filled with ideas of what I want to do, what I should do, and what I could do. To-do lists, priority lists, and one-day-I-will-do lists.

If I don't see these ideas, I forget them, and then they clutter my mind and I have to start a new list in a new notebook, so I can forget about those too.  If I don't see it, I forget it. If I don't read it every day, I sometimes forget what's motivating me. So I have this strange urge to write it BIG and BOLD and make it VISIBLE so I don't forget it.

I scaled down my crazy and bought a medium sized white board. And although I've written a few things on it, it still hasn't totally tamed the urge to write BIGGER so I can SEE IT ALL.

So what's the key to unlocking your creativity & productivity? 

Maybe C.S. (a.k.a. my manic boss) was on to something. Unclutter your mind by writing it all down and keep it in sight. Instead of blocking creativity and thought process, let it flow... All of it. The house to-do lists, the business to-do lists, the creative to-do lists, the children to-do lists, the husband honey-do lists, trips-you-want-to-take lists. Every last little thing until all your dirty laundry's out there like a bad reality show.

And while actually writing on the walls does qualify you for the definition of manic, you can at least write it all down on paper. Keep separate lists and tape them up around your house (in closets, behind cupboard doors, so people don't think you're too cray cray) so you can take a glance and remember what you're working toward. And for the love of Pete, cross off items as you do them! That's a whole other level of satisfaction.

Too much in your head stops productivity and keeps you in a vicious cycle of feeling unfocused and overwhelmed. As you write everything down that is bogging you down & leave it out where you can see it, the ideas will begin to flow and you won't have only saved your sanity, you won't have to repaint your walls.

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Shannon Sorensen is a blogger and creative type who occasionally fights the urge to write on the walls. Besides her creative outlets, she is also the Founder and CEO Shannon Sorensen Designs, maker of Fairface™ Washcloths, the best skin care washcloths for soothing and calming even the most sensitive skin.