UnMuddling

Last week I mentioned an idea incubation tool I call my Unmuddling Notebook. It's my personal alternative to Morning Pages, a basic tool in Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. Instead of writing three pages first thing each day, I write one or two lines in the morning and one or two lines at night.

My evening lines are a task I assign to my subconscious to work on overnight -- things I'd like it to help me clarify or unmuddle. It might be something very specific, or very general. Last night I wrote, "I need fresh eyes."

My morning lines are about what I want to make sure I'm paying attention to today. It might be the first thing that pops into my head when I wake up, or something I consciously pluck from the swirl of thoughts that returns when my eyes open. This morning it was "Reflections."

For me, writing morning and evening lines is a reminder to keep the heat turned up in my creativity incubator, and to be paying attention when something hatches. It's also a reminder that I have some choice in the matter of what gets my attention. Each morning and each evening, I make some choice about where to look for inspiration. Likewise, each morning, each evening, and during the hours in between, I have to let some things go -- maybe not forever, but for now.