Preparation a Must for Happy Painting

I have not put brush to paper in over 2 weeks. My creative side is screaming at me to get into the studio. I just finished cleaning my palette and adding fresh color. Although my palette has a cover, the paints were all dried up. I like to 'hang' fresh paint on the outside edge of each well, which keeps that paint clean. I have mixed color in the bottom of each well to the consistency of buttermilk or heavy cream. My paints are now ready for painting more spontaneously, more intuitively, more loosely for that 'painterly' impressionistic look. I don't want to have to stop to activate hard dry clumps of paint. That puts the brakes on the creative mode.