Alyice on February 21st, 2008

Don’t Let Time Crowd You Out

It’s interesting how I’ll make time for my kids, for their extracurricular events, for my husband’s needs, and for others I care about but—and this is a big but—when it comes to something I want just for me, I easily push it aside for “more important” tasks like cleaning, running errands, and the day-to-day operations of running my writing business. No wonder I can’t seem to get my photography and art hobby—err business—off the ground floor.

After meeting up with several artists who’ve made the commitment to work on their art every single day and seeing the rewards they’ve reaped from doing so, I can honestly say that it had me perplexed. Not because what they’ve done is complicated, confusing, or even difficult to understand but because I’ve been using the same formula for building my freelance writing business, for selling my e-books, and for building a reputation for my online magazine for years and I’ve yet to apply the same theories to my art or photography. Why?

For months I’ve tried to figure out a way to fit it all in but it has simply been impossible. I’d start the day with the business that brings in the money, then switch gears to housekeeper, mom, and wife. But by the time I was done, I was simply exhausted. There wasn’t any energy left at the end of the day for anything else—not art, not photography, not exercise, not personal recreation.

Then last month I did something about it, or so I thought. I realized that maybe, just maybe, I had my hands in too many cookie jars and so I let go of business ventures that were once fruitful but had become wasters of both time and energy. I thought it would free up some time and in a sense it did. Instead of always feeling like I was running behind, I began to feel like everything was right where it was supposed to be—right on schedule. I was no longer frantic and I gave myself permission to have leisurely lunches and early morning breakfasts with my kids. But I kept to the same schedule, work then commitments and finally, hobby/me time. Guess what? I still ran out of time.

But then I interviewed Jan Blencowe, artist and instructor. And that’s when I realized I was doing things backwards. In the interview Jan said, “I usually paint first thing in the morning because that’s the best way for me to make sure I have time to paint, otherwise life crowds in and the time seems to evaporate.”

Yes! Yes! Yes! That makes perfect sense! Instead of rewarding myself with art and photography at the end of the day, I must reward myself first. How brilliant, and yet so simple! And because I work from home, it’s totally doable.

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Comments (2)

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Jan Blencowe says:
Hi Alyice, Thanks for the “shout out”!

It is often very difficult for artists, women especially, to really truly believe that creating beauty through art is something more than a luxury. But it very definitly is. Creating, and being of a creative nature, is such a special gift; few have it and even fewer do it really well.

To bring into being something of beauy that has never existed before, never graced the eyes of the viewer, or touched their heart is incredibly important to the artist, the viewer, and humanity in general. There is much in this world that is sad, unjust, and cause for despair. Countering those realities through creativity is essential in affirming that goodness, beauty, truth, and justice also exist in our world. It is often very difficult in this “hard knock” reality that we live in to understand how profound the creating of art is. As artists we must constantly remind ourselves that what we do is important to the soul and, by extension, to everything else we do.

I have a friend who says she must have a paint brush in her hand by 7:00 a.m. or the day will be lost to her. I can’t say that I’m at my easel at 7:00 a.m. (LOL) but most days painting is the first task that I tackle. Then for the rest of the day I feel that the really important work has been done and my mind is clear to focus on all the practical aspects of the business that remains.

I’m glad that you found some encouragement and help in my words; I hope other artists also will be helped by them as well.

Best,
Jan
Posted at 4:10 pm March 8th, 2008
Alyice says:
That is some great insight Jan. My husband said to me the other day that he noticed that I’m happier than I’ve been in a long time when I am creating–whether it’s a crocheted blanket, a scrapbook page, painting, or some other form of art. And thus, he’s been encouraging me to make time for it. In fact, my 17 year old son just had a long discussion with me the morning after I made this post–of which he didn’t know–that I should start doing something for me first thing in the morning so I stopped running out of time. He was confident that everything else would get done afterwards.
Posted at 7:41 pm March 8th, 2008

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I'm a freelance writer, mixed media artist, SMVA, and the owner of The Dabbling Mum.

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