Stop bullshitting. Are you making time for your craft?
Creative challenges, minimizing procrastination and being flexible while scheduling your time...
“Damn! Where did the time go?” How much money would you have if you gave yourself a dollar for every time you said this to yourself? Business or pleasure, nearly every creative has those moments when time just gets away from us and we need to find a way to get back to doing what we enjoy. Creative challenges, minimizing procrastination and being flexible while scheduling your time…let’s talk about it.
Stay challenged in your craft. In March, I did a 30 Day Random One Mark Art Challenge on a 12x12 acrylic canvas. The goal was to be completely fluid with this challenge, nothing preplanned, no overthinking and having fun. Each day, I add a new marking and shared the progress on social media. I set a few goals in mind while completing this challenge:
1) to be actively creating art every day. A few issues I had was procrastination and lack of motivation. Creating everyday, even if it’s a small doodle, kept me from wasting time, building motivation and finding inspiration. I looked forward to seeing that new marking added to my project and surprised with how this art piece was taking shape. Does this mean you need to be cranking out work everyday? I won’t tell you that you need to, but I encourage you to push past your level of comfort if you’re interested in exploring a new style or find yourself in a creative funk.
2) it’s a non-stressful exercise. Taking on projects can be exhausting and overwhelming. Note to self: get plenty of rest when possible. I wasn’t making art regularly and I needed something that was going to keep me moving everyday with ease. Less than a week into this challenge, something happened. Like a runner, I got a creative high and I didn’t want to come down. I was so motivated that I got started working on a small textured collection called “Under Construction”. A four-piece collection was completed in three days. Could I have made this collection without getting a spark from the art challenge? Maybe but I know doing this challenge helped.
Minimize distractions and procrastination. This is a biggie. That’s not just a creative’s problem, that’s an everybody’s problem. It creeps upon us when we least expect it and because it happens so often, we don’t even realize that we’re wasting valuable time. If this is your struggle you have to acknowledge that you have a problem with procrastination. What are we doing that’s snatching up our valuable time? Well, the most obvious one is social media. If we’re not careful, 3 hours of mindless scrolling is gone in the blink of an eye. This was me last year on TikTok but once I deleted the app, I got my focus, and time, back. I also spent a lot of time watching TV, journaling and sitting with my thoughts…and sulking. My half finished projects would sit for weeks untouched. Pinterest became my escape and I pinned like my life depended on it and making a long list of things I wanted to create (aka “researching”). I made up reasons why I couldn’t make time to do my work. Many of them very valid reasons. When I identified what I was doing, I got started making some changes. The fact that I was depressed with my procrastination woke me up to do something about it. I had to remind myself that nothing will ever get accomplished if I don’t start taking immediate actions. Like Nike…Just Do It.
Schedule your time and be flexible. My business/life coach, Karen Williams-Thompson, told me to write down what I do each day for a week to identify the best times that I could use towards my craft. I was surprised to see that I had more time than I thought. No sacrificing, just shifting and swapping out my tasks and time. For example, if you noticed that on any given day that you spend more than an hour in one sitting on social media, use that time to dedicate towards your craft. It’s ok to start small and easy, such as an hour a day, but the goal is to stay consistent. Learn to be disciplined. Time is precious and it’s important that you don’t waste it. Now, life will be life-ing and there is no question that you have to be flexible when necessary. Your health, job, family, organizations, commissions/collabs, etc. require you to be flexible, however, proper time management is still key to making time for your craft.
This doesn’t have to be a scary and arduous lifestyle change. It shouldn’t be soul sucking either that prohibits us from enjoying, thriving and fulfilling our purpose. We’re going and coming and consumed with everything else that is of great importance (or maybe not so important) and need a gentle reminder to circle back. Take notes and stop bullshitting.