Monthly Archives: October 2013

How To> Beat Domain Dependance

Passion is a double edged sword: while you get to use it to complete tasks relating to goals you like, it almost detracts from other areas of your life you may wish to have equal motivation for. This spread of energy can be identified as a form of Domain Dependence*.

Domain Dependence is what makes categorizing your music collection fun, but organizing files for a presentation tedious. If you aren’t getting an immediate positive emotional pay off, the cheese at the end of the maze may seem too far off to even elicit the desire to continue. The answer?: Find elements of your tasks you enjoy and bring it to tasks you dread.

When I began on my mission to organize my wardrobe, I immediately knew I’d have more fun if I got to draw them out, and think about the value of colored lines along the way. (See an example here.) I’ve been enjoying myself so much, I have begun to work on this as a procrastination project. Often I will pick up some clothes to fold and mark down instead of thinking about this blog and how I can develop it.

While searching for ways to motivate myself to really think about how I want to lay information out, I realized I should treat topics for discussion in the same way I’ve been laying out all the clothes. I had a major case of Domain Dependence in being unable to apply similar skills to different projects.

Using bright colors, I followed my own advice and laid it all out on paper to assess where I came from and where I want to go. I already have some better ideas and motivation to look up the anatomy of a wordpress page so I can figure out how and what I want to change!

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How To> Organize: Lay It All Out There

The first step to any organizational process is to know your materials. Our minds are amazing organs, but they estimate based on our previous experience, regardless of the reality. I am always surprised to see the difference between what I expect to see, and what the content reveals after all the pieces have been played.

Whether you are working with physical/e-files, bookmarks, business cards, boardgames, or your aunt’s collection of tiny frog-related tchotchke; you will have no idea what categories or larger groupings to create if you haven’t documented the material to be organized. Taking an inventory might sound potentially boring, but this is the first opportunity to turn the process into  a game.

There are an infinite amount of ways to lay out/inventory your stock. In fact, I might even call this “info graphic brainstorming” time. To help develop my sense of style, I have decided to organize my wardrobe. I could lay out all my clothes and work with arranging them in physical piles, but where would the fun be in that? I love to draw, and have always thought fashion illustration was cool; how about I try to do crude line art of my clothes?

My first round attempt.

My first round attempt.

I have started with my shirts, (the most popular/trending content,) and have since gotten about 25 on one page. I will continue to post progress with other tips about how to get yourself organized, so stay connected!