Open up a fresh pair of pages in your Scanner Daybook (remember, in your Daybook, you always start on the left-hand page so you have plenty of open space to write on). Leave a bit of space at the top of the left-hand page for the title of this entry. When I designed this program, I wrote at the top of my page “A Scanner’s Home Is Her Workshop,” because I found that every single room in my house (even the hallway) has at least one writing surface with paper and pencils nearby! Wait until you’ve completed this exercise to see what kind of title you come up with.
Now, sit down and sketch out a rough plan of your home in pencil and then, with your Daybook and pencil in hand, walk carefully around each room looking for projects. It doesn’t matter if you never finished them, or even if you never started them. You know which items were intended to become projects in your own home. When you find one, draw a circle in that part of the floor plan and write the name of the project, such as:
- Little video player for watching old VHS home movies
- Basket of interesting clips from magazines
- Telephone recording hookup & instructions for my telephone classes
“I’m going to get embarrassed if I do that,” one Scanner wrote me. “I kind of hate to document how many projects I’ve started and not finished. They make my place a mess, too.” But that’s not the true Scanner inside you talking; that’s you worrying about your critics. Scanners, with their love of learning new things and their instinct for potential, almost always live in a “cluttered” space, and it’s not always easy for other people to understand what the clutter is about. But I asked you to do this exercise here at the beginning specifically so you could start being proud of that eager mind of yours and all the things it’s been drawn to do. Your home is not just a storage facility for your unfinished projects, it’s the workspace of a creative mind. See if you can find photos of the studios of famous artists, like Picasso, and you’ll see what I mean. A tidy housekeeper would be horrified at the disorder. Another artist-even a neat one-would have no problem understanding that he wasn’t looking at disorder, he was looking at a functioning workspace.
Sherlock Holmes, of course, would find an artist’s rooms very interesting indeed. So should you.
Let me close with an example from a Scanner just to get you started.
I walked through my living room and saw one antique lady’s shoe sitting on the floor behind a table and remembered why I took it home from a lawn sale. I once saw a lamp made of a shoe just like it, in a magazine. The lamp was beautiful. It also cost almost $400! I had an idea that I could start a whole line of items from found objects. So I circled the spot on my map and wrote “Victorian Shoe for Lamp.” Then I saw my harmonica and remembered I wanted to learn how to play it so I could accompany a friend who plays guitar on the street sometimes…
Got the idea? Okay, you do it.
After your map is complete, you can keep it in your Daybook and add to it whenever you start something new, or you can do what one Scanner did:
This map of my projects is beautiful! I colored it and even attached photos from magazines and a miniature piano from a charm bracelet. It’s a work of art, and I’m going to frame it and put it on my wall! It’s like a collage of my soul!
When you’re finished, you might see a pattern in your projects, like I did in my map. Whatever you find, with respect and admiration write a heading in the space you left at the top of the left-hand page. Nothing deprecating is allowed. Praise is due, and I want your heading to reflect that, even if you have to scratch your head and search for it the rest of the day.
Be sure to do this exercise in your Scanner Daybook, not on your computer or on ordinary, uninteresting paper. In a new comment on this page, tell us about your experience with the Living Quarters Map and what title you gave this entry in you Daybook. Then read the rest of the comments and see if you would like to reply to any of them.
Please be sure to subscribe to future comments on this exercise or to check back here on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning for new ones. If there are a lot of comments by then, look for an Older Comments link to see any that do not fit on this page.
Use the Next link (up above the title) to continue on to What I Learned from Chapter 1 after you are done with your comments.
I did this project this time; however, I am a bit stumped. Should I include the “work” projects in this, such as replacing the window, getting new shutters, or replacing the door? I have a few “creative” items, such as artwork for a few walls, but my “work to do” list is longer, and although it does bring me satisfaction to cross things off of that list, I am not sure it is what this entry is for. Thoughts?
That would be your call Nan, but because it’s in your environment and that’s what you’re looking at I would be inclined to include them even if they are work projects✨
Okay, thank you for the reply. I will add them.
Happy you are getting responses!
My entry was called “Prototypes of Ideas, Both Created and In Creation.” As I went through all the supplies I have purchased and collected, I realised that all of them have been put to good use, even if it was for a one-time DIY. Originally I felt bad for hoarding so many things that have collected dust, but then I remembered I get a ton of compliments on the things I’ve made, and that they’re one-of-a-kind, represent me, and were an idea I came up with on my own. I put this task off because it seemed daunting, due to needing to create a map of my entire living space. I have a wrought relationship with “home” because I am prone to moving, which is why I did not want to put it on paper. But I tried to make it fun by using an online software to make a (somewhat successful) floorplan as I did not want to draw it by hand. I printed it out and the floorplan looks neat, albeit inaccurate!
So with this exercise, I feel like the bulk of my projects revolve around donating/listing things that I want to get rid of before I move AKA stuff I don’t want to lug with me. Which is fine, at least I know that and I can tackle it. Some small cleaning projects, such as dusting/running a vacuum, which are easy to tackle. But none of these projects give me clarity as to what to tackle or how to move forward with any other goals. The purpose of the book is not to judge the moment or to make lists, but this one just felt like a cleaning list. Looking forward to tomorrow’s brainstorm.
Thank you J!
I didn’t do this exercise the first time I read the book but I finally forced myself to do it for this group. I may be a bit unique (or maybe not) in that I create most of my projects in one or two places. If I lived alone I would probably decorate the whole place in my own creations but my wife has very different tastes, so I keep mine mostly to my personal home office.
That makes sense Joel! Thank you for doing it and trying it “for the group” 🙂 I hope it wasn’t too burdensome!
“Infinite Excess” —> “Unfinished Business” —> I think I’ll go with “Pursuit of Better”
books on how to live
endless supply of mail to process and organize with questionable value
gadgets not fully setup
videos not yet watched
forgotten memories
I often imagine a future in which I’ll do things I saved for then.
I drew most of the items in the map – a very strange thing for me to do!
@J, i spend a lot of time thinking about how to get rid of things
Very interesting Nate! Thank you for sharing 🙂
Much of my mind is also on how to get rid of items that no longer apply to me! I get hung up because I want to make sure all of the goods go to the right places… for example, I donated eyeglasses today to a local club because I knew they would ship it internationally to someone in need. It takes more effort on my part, but I find it much more ethical than donating it where I don’t know what will happen to it.
Makes sense Katherine! I love your care of the items
I loved doing this exercise although i think i probably only really scratched the surface. What resonated most for me was a lot of the ideas are ‘creative’ hobbies (material to make into things, various art to display on the walls or create my own). Thats stuff i used to enjoy as a kid but rarely do nowadays. I think it felt one of many reasons i’ve not done or displayed stuff is i am adept at shapeshifting to people and situations around me and conforming to societal norms, so i’ve tended to keep aspects of me quiet or hidden. Plus my tastes are eclectic so others might not agree or get them anx j was probably scared of ridicule. Now, frankly i dont care if others dont embrace my tastes – its my home space and i’m looking forward to finally getting re-energised and stuck into those projects and putting stuff on show!
Hi Janet! Love the enthusiasm and commitment to making your own space and putting your stuff on show!
I love your enthusiasm for your new perspectives. Thank you for sharing.
The title of my map is “A Place for Making and Playing” I came to this after noting that I have many, many tools for making things, from yarn and fiber to fabric to stationery supplies to spinning wheels and an iPad which is pretty much my 2D art studio since I live in such a small space. I have jewelry making supplies, embroidery and many cooking appliances and gadgets: all this is about making. I also have a large collection of board games and video games, hence: playing. I suppose one could also say learning since I have an outsized collection of books and they are pretty much taking over my space, despite constant culling.
Love the idea of all those board games Abby, play sounds great and also a fabulous way to learn! I keep hearing things about ‘gamification’ and how that can be used in the workplace for example. I recall we used Lego to build and explain project ideas once, it was so much fun!
Hi Janet! There is a great book called Wonderland by Steven Johnson (I think!) all about how play has fostered most
Of the great inventions and innovations. Evidently, being good at games is a great motivator for human creativity!
Hi Zibby, you could’ve written your entry for me as well! I found I used two general labels on my map – one being the name of the project and the other being ‘too much stuff’! There’s a lot of ‘too much stuff’ on my map!
However, on the positive side, I found that a lot of my projects are about learning. I play the flute, but I also have a collection of unlearnt or semi-learnt instruments in my home (not that you ever fully ‘learn’ an instrument, but what I mean by ‘semi’-learnt’ or ‘unlearnt’ means that I have little to no proficiency in them). The rest were all books to be read for their contents themselves, e.g. lots of history books, or for learning how to do things, i.e. books that teach a particular skill. The subject matter is varied, but not infinitely so. I have lots of poetry, novels, history books and some books on art and science. II have a bit of a pattern happening, which I sort of knew already, but it’s been good for me to consciously note.
I titled my map ‘I Dwell in Possibility’, which is the opening line of a poem by one of my favourite poets, Emily Dickinson. While she was speaking metaphorically, I’m literally living in a place overflowing with things waiting to be used. At first the title came to mind in a positive sense, then in a tongue-in-cheeck sense and then it progressed to a sort of self-berating sense, which I stopped in its tracks. I do indeed live in a place full of stuff – some of it which I yearn to use and the rest of which can be given away.
Hello Christine, ‘I dwell in possibility’ – I like that!
An interseting excersise. I realsied that in pockest of my house, I have stuff, stuff I need to sell. This stuff has a clogging energy to it, it has an invisible hold on my thought process, that nagging constant feeling of something I need to get round to. Yet, I always think I haven’t got time. Now I realise that by finding the time to release the stuff, I will release that bloked energy. I struggle sometimes with tiredness and I can see that ‘stuff’ has a part to play in it. One can never be truly free to create when there are those niggly jobs that pile up. Rather than one big clear out which seems so daunting, maybe I can tackle one thing at a time. the map also made me aware of all the books around me that have inspired me to action and how little action I have taken.
Hi Zibby, I’m with you there that the little piles of stuff to sell or get rid of really weight down on you! I also have bags here and there of things to organise and donate (eyeglasses for example), but it’s all tasks.
Empathise on the ‘clogging energy’ aspect Zibby, I feel a bit of that too. Its a running joke that my decluttering has been a work in practise … for a few years now! Tried clearing out one drawer at the weekend – cant tell you how much lighter i felt for having done it (even though i picked up a few extra tasks to do in the process!)
And loads of books too. Cant bear to get rid of them, who knows if i will ever read them all 🙂 Friend who is a grief counsellor once said something along the lines of “if you always hold onto stuff and dont let go, you wont be able to create space for new things/ideas/experiences.” Totally changed my thinking so I am embracing letting go occasionally.
I really like the idea of letting go of some things to make room for new things/ideas/experiences. It just seems like such a daunting task, though! I think I have to make it a project. I don’t know about other Scanners, but I’m very project-oriented (rather than process-oriented). I wonder if this the same for other people in our group?
I resonate with this so much Zibby….just turning towards it and realizing it is a big step in my opinion!