Tips to Eliminate Brain Clutter

Ever try and concentrate on something but your brain just doesn't seem to want to cooperate?  Welcome to Brain Clutter.   I've always had this problem, mostly because I have so many interests and ideas always popping into my head.   I am often told that I 'Think too much.' 
Honestly it's not something I can control, I do think a lot, and when I can't figure something out it gets worse I end up not being able to stop thinking about it until I do.... but is it good?

I'm not sure... I mean on one hand if you think too much eventually you have to make a decision or lose opportunities, on the other hand if you don't think about it at all and just jump in blind you may end up in a worse situation.  So I guess the key is balance.  I recently did some research on the topic and found some helpful tips for 'Decluttering' the brain.

1. Write it down. If you have a bunch of things on your mind, it helps to get them on paper and off your mind. ( This is useful, which is partly why I created this blog, I am horrible at keeping a journal, so I feel blogging when I have something to say is a lot easier and more rewarding when I get contacted that other people feel the same. After all a journal can't email you thoughts... yet. )

2. Identify the essential.  Figure out what needs to be done now and what can wait and focus on the 'Now' rather than trying to figure everything out at the same time.  ( I have been working on this, I think a talk with my dad about this helped, he had mentioned once that instead of trying to tackle one big problem, chip away at it by trying to solve small parts of it... makes sense.)

3. Eliminate. Now that you’ve identified the essential, you can identify what’s not essential. What things in your life are not truly necessary or important to you? ( This is also interesting because I've discovered that we all have 'Wants' but most times I think we 'Want-to-want' in other words and for an example, you may want to go fishing, or you see other people do it and it looks interesting, so you go out and buy fishing tackle only to discover a year later you never went fishing...because you don't really want to, you just thought you did.   By eliminating 'pipe dreams' you can focus on what you really want and then put all of yourself into it, rather than trying to do many things at the same time.)

4. Rethink your sleep. Sometimes we aren’t getting enough sleep, or our sleeping patterns aren’t ideal. ( Again with the sleep!   I've tried changing my sleep cycle...but it's useless, I am a night owl, all my thoughts and creativity seem to appear at night no matter what, so what I decided was to get the most quality sleep instead of longer amounts of time sleeping.  Hopefully that helps. )

5. Take a walk. Getting outside and doing some kind of physical activity is a great way to get stuff off your mind. ( This I need to do more often, I used to do it a lot. )

6. De clutter your surroundings. Cleaning up your house or organizing it will go a long ways towards helping your brain function well.

So there we have it, a good list, let's see how it works!

Tips for Growing as an Artist

So here's a question for you...
Have you ever gone through your portfolio - Painting, Photography, Graphic Design, Writing or any other medium and felt like throwing it all away because you just saw another artist's portfolio?
This happens to me so many times, but what does it do?  Well, you can get discouraged and feel like giving up, or hopefully, it causes you to get better and inspires you to create more.

The truth is there isn't an artist in the known universe that does not feel like that at times, or daily... it's how we grow, we need to keep working, even when we don't want to, to push ourselves to get better but how?

Here are some Tips....

1. Get Inspired - Browse Magazines, not just in your particular field either, you never know what image will flip that creative switch.  Browse artists blogs and Websites, browse Deviantart, Tumblr, Flickr and other sources. Listen to different styles of music.  Visit Museums and Galleries.
Immerse yourself in creativity... Take a shower in creativity.... Fill your soul with creativity.

2. Don't judge yourself to harshly - I know it seems impossible, but accept that someone will always seem more creative than you at some point, use it to fuel your own creativity and help you grow.

3. Get involved - Communicate with other artists, and share your experiences with each other. You will discover that others feel the same as you.

4. Keep your skills sharp -  I know, from personal experience with Photography, there is always more to learn, new gadgets, new techniques so keep practicing your craft.

5. Create often -  You can't be a part-time artist if you want to keep growing, you need to keep working daily.

I hope these simple tips will help you on your creative journey... hey, we are all in this together!

Sick things to do when you are Sick!

So I suppose it was inevitable that I would end up sick or in the process of getting sick.. at some point. 
My ever faithful Echinacea vitamins are doing their job, helping my immune system fight off the enemy but wow... I feel like crap...normally I can tell I am coming down with something when my coffee tastes like crap (not that I would have any idea what actual crap tastes like) ..but... anyhow yes I am not feeling great.

So since I am not doing anything today other than trying to get well again, I thought I would post some things I like to do when I am sick.  

The List!

1. Pintrest, I try to pin daily but that doesn't always work out, so when I am sick and have nothing better to do, I take some time to catch up on my pinning ... so addictive but in a good way.

2. Simming, Playing Sims3 or some other game is a great way to past time time, in fact ... one of my Sims got sick this morning.. so hoping I didn't give it to them. (Yes, I realize that's not possible.. although...)

3. Reading, Reading is such a great thing to do when sick.. or not sick, since it requires nothing but turning pages... or if you do the whole ebook thing (which I don't) then you don't even have to turn pages.

4. Watch a movie, since I rarely watch TV, I would probably put in an old movie and get comfy with a bunch of pillows and blankets.

5. Social Networking, I might not to a lot of this because if I am sick and moody I might end up saying something to someone or posting something that I might later regret.

6. Blogging, and lastly... posting a blog post about being sick and things you can do when you are sick.. is always fun. :)

Social Media Time Management

So, this blog post will also be about time management, something I am actively working on.   This post will deal with Social Media, and how much of a 'Time Sink' it can be.
I mean think about it, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, Pintrest ... and so on... you could literally spend hours keeping people up-to-date on all your coming and goings... and if you blog, as I do (Obviously) then you have even more to do.   So what is the best way to keep up and still use these tools?

Glad you asked... here you go.

1. Set up a schedule. You do not have to add a new post to every social network every day. This can eat up a lot of time from your daily schedule and leave you feeling just plain overwhelmed. The important thing is that when you do post, make sure it is valuable or fun content that will generate a good response from your fans and followers.

2. Create a content stockpile. As a part of your social media schedule, set up a time during the week where you brainstorm content ideas for blog posts, status updates, tweets, etc. This will eliminate any stress of having to come up with something on the spot from one week to the next. Then, when the time comes to update your posts, you can just select something from the pile and post.

3. Link your networks. When you are doing things on your own, it can be hard to find the time to post to multiple accounts. You can link each of your profiles so that when you post on one account, say your Facebook page, then it is also sent out to the others and vice versa. Tools like Buffer, Tweetdeck and even Facebook Scheduled Posts can make this happen in the background for you.

5. Get automated. One bonus of having a content stockpile is that you can use tools like Socialoomph, Buffer and Timely for Twitter to schedule its release automatically. This doesn’t mean you can put all of your social media posts on auto-pilot though, because that just defeats the purpose.
You can schedule certain things, but you still need to go back and make responses where needed and take time to actually interact with your fans.

6. Combined engagement. Other tools make it simple to monitor and update your accounts from one spot. You can use Hootsuite or Tweetdeck to create a dashboard that lets you handle multiple social media accounts from a single platform, saving you time.
Create alerts for important topics such as your company name, product names and competitors. Create Twitter Lists of your most important customers, partners and media contacts so you can monitor their activity in real time.

7. Set up topic alerts. Save yourself time from searching for industry news articles by setting up a Google Alert for specified topics. You can search through the results for news that relates to you. When you find something of interest, you can share it with your followers.

I hope these tips will help you, I did not even know about some of these, until doing the research for time management, so I will be implementing some of these great ideas.   I think though, the important thing to think about while implementing these ideas is make sure you don't turn into an 'Automaton'... keep everything real and interesting and most important, interesting to you!

4 Great Tips for a Better Night's Rest

Sleep...

I am so not a morning person, though I often wish I could be, I listen to friends talk about waking up early, going for a jog, or just waking up and feeling refreshed.
I don't know about you, but the first thing I do when I wake up is head for the coffee...  I have tried going to sleep earlier.. I still wake up tired, I go to bed late, I wake up tired, I sleep in... and guess what?  I wake up tired. 

So part of my 'unofficial' 2013 resolutions is to figure out how to get a better night's sleep and stick with it.
I recently did some research and found these tips... I am hoping to apply to my schedule.

Tips...

1. Stick to a sleep schedule: Go to bed and get up at the same time every day, even on weekends, holidays and days off. Being consistent reinforces your body's sleep-wake cycle and helps promote better sleep at night.

2. Pay attention to what you eat and drink: Don't go to bed either hungry or stuffed. Your discomfort might keep you up. Also limit how much you drink before bed, to prevent disruptive middle-of-the-night trips to the toilet.

3. Create a bedtime ritual: Do the same things each night to tell your body it's time to wind down. This might include taking a warm bath or shower, reading a book, or listening to soothing music — preferably with the lights dimmed. Relaxing activities can promote better sleep by easing the transition between wakefulness and drowsiness.

4. Get comfortable: Create a room that's ideal for sleeping. Often, this means cool, dark and quiet. Consider using room-darkening shades, earplugs, a fan or other devices to create an environment that suits your needs.

#1 and #2 are a definite necessity for me... because I have no sleep schedule, I often have to force myself to go to sleep because I am a night person, and unfortunately all my best ideas, thoughts and inspirations always seem to arrive when I should be sleeping.  So that, I need to work on.

I got these tips over at www.mayoclinic.com so head over there if you need more info, as for me.. I will be trying to implement these tips into my schedule!