296/365: Left-Brain Love for Right-Brained People

This past week, the insomnia began again and I'm up at all hours of the night, my brain on a hamster wheel, deliberating over new ideas. My Midnight Idea Journal is just not cutting it. My notes are usually illegible come daylight, and really, I'd rather be sleeping. I think I need another massive to-do list brain spill to clean out the ol' mental file.

In January I made the mother of all idea lists. It was a great way to organize my thoughts and has proven very useful, but since it's on my lap top, it's not quite as accessible as I'd like it to be. I still find myself jotting new ideas down in phone notes, lesson plan books and random scraps of paper when I'm on the go. So I'm right back where I started with the scattered schemes. Inspiration is everywhere, but I have too many disheveled ideas to know where to start.

Oh here I go again with the lists and organizing...but at last I think I've found a real solution. Last week I sat in on a webinar offered by Jess Green of Seek Your Course (which, by the way is the most incredible source for art workshops, retreats, conferences and all experiences to grow your creative soul or business. Jess, you're brilliant!) Jess offers a series of classes called Creative Ease. She suggests a systems approach to "getting things done while maintaining creative energy and sanity." Think of your organized and analytical left-brain doing a sexy tango with your inspired and creative right brain! Oh yes, that's the sweet spot for me!

Through the webinar, I learned about some great free apps (that sync to your smart phone and desktop computer) to help you get and stay on top of all those creative ideas and projects. It's helping me whip my creative life into shape, finally!

So this evening I've been applying my left-brain skills to set up the fabulous Evernote app. Evernote allows you to capture and organize the flow of ideas into your own personal, searchable library. Tomorrow it's on to organizing action steps and to-do lists for my latest creative projects with the Trello  app, and creating a blog publishing calendar with Google Calendar.

I wouldn't consider myself incredibly tech-savvy, so it's good to know that Jess's classes are there if I get in over my head with these new toys. Do check out her Creative Ease site for a more thorough description of how these and several other left-brain tools can benefit creative right-brainers.

These new tools are totally helping me embrace my left-brain tendencies and making them work for me as an artist. Yes, left-brain, I love you too and you deserve the credit for helping me plan, organize and accomplish many of my creative projects with baby steps.

I have 70 days left in my 365 Days of Creative project, and while there's plenty of room for new inspiration, spontaneous projects and creative whims, I want to make sure to share the golden nuggets I've been digging up. I want to use the time that's left to explore the topics that have been on my mind, the questions that have come up along the journey and the projects that are itching to come to the surface.

I feel like I can see it all more clearly, and it's totally manageable. I feel like I have more focus and intention. Cheers to left-brain loveliness!