How to carve out time from your busy schedule for creativity
Would you love to find time for a creative project?
Super busy? I get it! Running from the morning schedule, everyone out of the house with lunch boxes, work, housework, menu planning, shopping, cleaning, cooking, playing with the children, organising play dates – need I go on? I am with you!!
Time management might not be the first thing that comes to mind when craving creative time but it is ALL about time.
A recent time management course at work started with the trainer advising no-one would do anything different as a result of the course. A depressing thought! I took away some points. Check your emails once a day and deal with them. Do not get lost down the rabbit hole of social media. Can you set your phone so notifications only come from favourite contacts? I have only just done this, of course it doesn’t give me the discipline to stop checking my phone but new habits take time right?!
How to find time for creativity:
- Brainstorm creative ideas, keep images from magazines, start a pinterest board for storing ideas, or a sketchbook. There are so many places to start, narrowing down ideas can help you make a start. If you have a project in mind capturing the time is easier, you know what you want to do!
- Choose projects you can pick up and put down. This is perfect if you are short of time, Its is amazing what you can achieve. The trick is not to choose a complicated pattern where it will take you time to figure out where you have got to with the instructions. This may be knitting, crochet, hand sewing, patchwork piecing.
- Snatch ten minutes when you can. What ten minutes can you find? Having a project on the go which is easy to pick up makes the most of my time. Naturally I would love a while free day for making but that just isn’t realistic at this stage in life. Rather than feeling frustrated, or using this as an excuse not to start I make the most of those precious ten minutes (I am typing this whilst the kids put on their shoes and socks for school!). Break your project down into small tasks which are achieveable. Bite size chinks really do add up.
- Take projects with you – can you choose a portable project? If you follow me on instagram you may have noticed that I regularly post images of knitting or hand stitching. I always take a project to the kids swimming lessons, I may be the only parent with a craft activity but who cares??? I have overcome my concerns about knitting whilst having a cuppa with a friend (I always discuss this the first time, I do not wish to offend a new friend!). Do you commute by public transport? Can you take your current project with you?
- Create a space in your home for creative making. I am fortunate as I have a large desk where I can leave the sewing machine set up. It is my sewing room, the room also holds the laundry, kids games, the freezer and family paper work. Where can you squeeze out a creative space? I know people who have sewing rooms on a small table in the corner of the living room, or the corner of their bedroom. Leaving the sewing machine up means no time is lost setting up.
More time management tips:
Do you start the day early with children? Maximise this time. Or does your partner like watching sport, can you be creative one evening a week whilst they spend time on their interests? Be organized, find your supplies and store them together for your project. Spending time on creativity is good for our mental health, it is part of self care – remember if you are well it benefits everyone in your household:)
Wondering where to start? Try out one of these quick projects:
What are your top tips for creating time for creativity? I would love to know,
Caroline
Friday 24th of March 2017
Good ideas. I have those plastic boxes (normally used for paper etc) and put all materials needed into them. Good to be organised as helps find everything
Julie
Wednesday 22nd of March 2017
Great ideas. I'm pretty good at taking portable projects with me when i know I'll be hanging around, and I always like to have something on the go for when I'm watching tv. My biggest problem is that I flit from one thing to another all at the same time. If I were more focused I think I'd get more done. I'm going to try to put some of this into practice :-)
Caroline
Sunday 19th of March 2017
A great blogpost and a good reminder about making little changes to help squeeze in a craft project in the week!
Teodora Totorean
Sunday 19th of March 2017
This is great! I agree with all the points. I particularly like the idea of working on your projects while your partner is doing his own things or watches his favourite programmes :).
Anna
Sunday 19th of March 2017
I think my favourites are having a space where you can leave stuff out and having a project that you can take with you and work on if you have a minute. I knit at the bus stop :)