Nest: Day 3
April 3, 2011 
5 Comments
Day 3
Get orderly with your key.
Young Gustave, habithacking away.
Gustave Flaubert, author of the great novel Madame Bovary, is a habithacking hero. He understood that in order to have the energy to excel in your creative work, the rest of your life’s gotta run on order and routine.
For instance, from now on, have one and only one designated spot for your car/house/office keys. As soon as you walk in the door, go directly to that spot and drop in your keys.
I keep mine in a kitchen drawer. You could hang them on a nail, keep them in a decorative bowl on a console table, or designate a special spot on a counter.
Starting today, you will no longer waste time searching through pockets and purses for your keys, and thus you can put all that violent emotion you usually expend on the daily key search and rescue into your creative endeavors instead.
Being orderly doesn’t mean becoming boring. It just means you won’t have to corral brain power for the mind-dulling daily stuff. After all, your brilliance has better things to do. As Gustave says:
“Be regular and orderly in your life
so that you may be
violent and original in your work.”
Nest Month 1
What to do so far:
If you missed a day…the reminders below are clickable.
Polish your place daily.
Get your supplies/do your do.
Be regular and orderly (and stash your keys).
I am good at being orderly but I don’t know if I want to be regular, in an ordinary way, that is. :)
Well, I’m with you on that one…as someone who is routinely described as eccentric. But I suppose I take Flaubert’s use of “regular” to mean routine–something I’m also not so hot at!