How much time each day do you devote to your creative routine?
In an interview with Michael Nobbs – over at Sustainably Creative – the single-minded Dan Goodwin touched on some pretty important points (well, I think so at least) in nurturing your creativity.
We must guard our creative time fiercely and allow ourselves to be fully immersed in it.
How many of you are guilty of putting your creative endeavours off?
I know I do. I tell myself…
When I have the time.
I’ll do it once I (insert housework chore here).
When I finish (…..) I’ll get to it.
As you know I’ve started a 365 Project this year. Started off with enthusiasm and gusto, which has progressively waned over the last couple of weeks.
Yesterday(before I had read the above post, which provided a lightbulb moment!) I made the decision to take my camera, take a walk and get outside my comfort zone. I’m now taking pictures (every 5 steps or so!) and seeing endless possibilities wherever I look.
I’ve MADE the time. By immersing myself only in the act of making a photo, it’s re-sparking my shutter-love.
If you broke the whole day into 15 minute chunks, you’d have 96 chunks – four per hour multiplied by 24 hours. We’re talking about devoting just one out of 96 chunks of time each day to uninterrupted creating.
This is something I’ve been doing since I returned to creating after my back injury.
Personally I break my day in to 25 minute blocks.
I find 15 minutes too short to get a flow of work happening, and 30 minutes is too long for me to sit in the one place without getting up and stretching.
The Pomodoro Technique is what turned me on to working in chunks of time. Invest in a kitchen timer and give it a try. It does work.
This kind of focused activity is something we need to practice, something we need to remind ourselves regularly how it feels. The age we live is increasingly bombarding us with so many distractions and demands, we’ve forgotten how to switch them all off and just do one thing and one thing only.
Mind you, I will openly admit that there are days when I ignore my timer. When I incessantly check emails, Twitter and Facebook.
But just like our crafts, our creative single-mindedness is something we need to practise regularly.
Will our online worlds really grind to a halt if we turn off our computers and phones?
How much better will you feel if you concentrate on the task at hand?
The task of being creatively single-minded.
