How To Give Your Creative Work Priority

How To Give Your Creative Work Priority

If you are like me you have a lot of things going on in your life.  There is your job and your family, friends, other interests. Often these things fill up your twenty four day. If you are very creative then often you have more that one creative thing that you do. You may be going along creating a lot of art but then you remember that book you started a while ago. You really want to work on it but it seems to be the last thing on your to do list.  It the one thing you never seem to get to.

I found myself in this situation recently. I am what I call a multi-creative person. I have several creative outlets that take up my time. I create art with paint and paper, spin yarns, weave fabrics and write.  I do a lot of writing online through my blog and other posting I do on social media sites. I am also working on a novel.  It really is hard to do it all but I do try my best. Lately I have found time to pursue most of it but I keep putting working on my novel till the last. If you have something on the bottom of your list, it doesn’t mean that you don’t want to do it, I believe that you just don’t give it priority.

I discovered this for myself the other day.  I knew I wasn’t getting to my writing, I easily put it off. When that doesn’t bother me then its ok. When it does I know something needs to change.  When it comes to long standing projects like writing a novel it is often hard to stay focused over the long haul.  When I am weaving a blanket, or painting a picture I have a product where I can see the end, I know it will be finished in a given amount of time.  Writing takes so much longer.

The other thing is that if you are going to give your creative work priority then you need to give something up.  There are only so many hours in a day. Often we have to make the time for our creative work. Of course this sounds easier than it is. You have to look at how you spend your time and look for small amounts of time or larger blocks if you can.  Some of don't really know how we are spending our time.

Here is a great exercise that I learned from my own coach. Make a pie chart of your time, it will help you see how you are spending your time. Color in the sections with colored pencils or crayons so they are visible. Some ideas to fill in are work, family, computer time, TV,  games, etc.  If you go into great detail you’ll find areas that pop out.  You'll be amazed at how much time you waste doing things you really don't want to do. Maybe you spend an hour on Facebook every night. You could cut that down to 1/2 hour and spend the other half hour doing your creative project.  When I was having difficulty getting to my own writing, I realized I was not giving it priority   I chose a day just to focus on it, I didn't let anything else get in the way. Once I made it important, I was able to get some real work done. I found that as soon as I made it a priority it became easier to do.

Some questions for you to think about:

If you were focusing on your creativity,  what small things would you be doing now?  

What could you let go of to spend more time on your creative project?

How can you make it easier to use the time that you have?