Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Simple Organizing Systems: Project Boxes

The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp

As an advocate of simple systems, I was delighted to read how choreographer Twyla Tharp organizes her projects. The following quote comes from her book The Creative Habit, via 43 Folders and Self-Reliant Film.
Everyone has his or her own organizational system. Mine is a box, the kind you can buy at Office Depot for transferring files.

I start every dance with a box. I write the project name on the box, and as the piece progresses I fill it up with every item that went into the making of the dance. This means notebooks, news clippings, CDs, videotapes of me working alone in my studio, videos of the dancers rehearsing, books and photographs and pieces of art that may have inspired me. ...

The box makes me feel organized, that I have my act together even when I don’t know where I’m going yet. ...

Most important, though, the box means I never have to worry about forgetting. One of the biggest fears for a creative person is that some brilliant idea will get lost because you didn’t write it down and put it in a safe place. I don’t worry about that because I know where to find it. It’s all in the box.
Related Reading:
Tip of the Month: The KISS Principle

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