Hi Mike,
You didn't mention what kind or size of a palette you own. One thing which has really changed my painting has been to use a hand-held wooden palette. I was persuaded by Peggy Baumgaertner's videos and also by Bill Whitaker to give it a try.
There's something wonderfully freeing about being able to walk around with all your paints right in your line of vision. When I used my big table easel I used to look down at it to mix the colors and then back up at the painting. I think it somehow broke up whatever good-flow mental state I had worked up and that fraction of a second (or more) gave me time to mutter, fume, question my existence, and indulge in the usual self flagellation.
By the way, if you play music when your paint, your palette becomes your dance partner, but if you let it lead all the paint ends up on your chest.
I'm not a limited palette painter, so mixed piles can quickly get to be a problem. I scrape them into new piles of cool light values, warm light values, cool dark values and warm dark values. I pile these up seperately on my taboret easel. At the end of the day I put all these mixed greys (as well as the usable clean colors still on my hand held palette) onto a Tupperware rectangle and stick it in the freezer. I've tried the tube thing and it didn't work for me. It's a big plus for me psychologically to save my big globs of paint and I find myself less worried about "waste."
Now I'm scheming to build a really big hand held palette, possibly even bigger than the one June Blackstock holds in her wonderful publicity photo on her SOG website:
www.portraitartist.com/blackstock
I'm thinking of ways to maybe hang it around my neck or buckle it around my waist. I could drum on it with my brushes if things got dull. Heck, maybe I could drum up more business.
Like you, I consider myself a fairly intuitive painter. (By the way, Michael, your organization is very impressive. I sure wish I could manage this.) If you change one aspect of your painting habits, a domino effect seems to kick in and it affects all aspects of your work. Simple, physical changes can effect remarkable mental changes, much like the way putting a smile on your face can actually stimulate your brain sensors into happiness.
Best wishes,
Linda