Wondering Where Your Time Goes?
Here Are 5 Helpful Habits for Creators
Habits are big internet business, and there are plenty of reasons for this. One of the reasons is that lots of people want to make their lives better, fuller, and happier. Writers and creatives of all stripes are always looking for ways to make more time for doing what they love. In the interest of helping you make the time for your writing that it deserves, I have come up with a list of 5 habits you can cultivate to help you find more time and inspiration to create.
- Get up an hour early—whatever that is for you. I know all the productivity gurus are hawking it, but there is a good reason. I have found that getting up an hour earlier gives me the jump on my day that I sometimes need to give me the time to create. I have time to journal, do some yoga, and get in some quality creative time if I give myself just one more hour in the morning.
- Routines really help—I used to wake up in a new world every day. I didn’t really have goals or plans back then, but being a mom requires routines, and that skill totally transfers to creative projects. Develop routines so that you can streamline them when you need to, and to complete step 3.
- Read every day. Yes, you. Yes, daily. Even for those not as enamored of books as I am can set aside a little bit of reading time every day. Whether it’s 30 minutes or 3 hours doesn’t matter, as long as you are reading. I find that reading helps me by giving me inspiration for projects, thoughts outside my own that I can draw on in one way or another to fuel something. Reading every day helps me stay informed about my world (Reading the news, not social media. That’s different.) and helps me prepare for the day. It keeps me abreast of what is happening in my genre, as well as what’s new in gardening, ecology and more. There is so much out there to read, and most all of it will be instructive or entertaining at the very least.
- Enlist others to your cause. I have found that asking my family for advice or help on a project and accepting their input and help, assists also in their being more supportive of the work and the time it takes. They really seem more invested when they feel like they are part of the team, and honestly I couldn’t do any of this without them.
- Keep your workspace tidy. Even if, like me, you like a little bit of inspirational clutter hanging around, it shouldn’t take over your workspace. I just went through the spring declutter last week, when I posted my “What’s on My Desk?” article for March 2020. Spring cleaning is never easy, and I am as bad as anybody else, but I still list it as a helpful habit, because it would be, and hopefully will be—when I master it. You’ll be the first to know if I do. Well, second—after Hubby, who will probably notice before I do.
I hope you will find these habits helpful ones, and I hope it takes you far less time to master some of them than it has me. I’ll see you back here next week, when we’ll take a look at some tools of the trade for working writers.
Until then—
Be well.
~D~
