Creative Habits: Part 1 - A Place for Everything

Hello friends! Lately I’ve been working on a series of posts about creative habits. There’s plenty on this subject to talk about, but today I wanted to hone in on one piece of the puzzle: Finding a place for things in our lives to help us be more creative.

I’ve always been fascinated about the rituals and habits that people do to stay productive and motivated, especially other artists. Some people eat the same breakfast every day. Others put on a certain outfit or hat when it’s time to get to work. I’ve never really had any of these habits because I’ve always failed miserably to have a regular studio practice as an artist. I’m starting to believe though, that it might actually be the other way around. Perhaps I’ve never been able to have a regular studio practice because I didn’t build in any rituals or habits. At least that is until COVID hit...

This past year, everyone in our house was working and schooling from home. For the first time, I was challenged to create my own hours so that they all knew when I was free and also when I was working on my art. Basically, I had to treat it like an actual job. This turned out to be a great thing, because it challenged me to make my creative practice a priority in ways I never had before. As a wife and mother, it’s quite a big deal to tell everyone in your house “for these hours on these days, you cannot bother me unless the house is on fire because I am making art!”. The audacity! It feels so bold to claim that time and space for ourselves and for artmaking - but why? We do the very same for all sorts of other careers… is it just because artmaking is seen as joyful and it is somehow more audacious to claim time for our joy? Whatever the case, I found as soon as I proclaimed this priority aloud to my family, I felt a wonderful release. It was like giving myself a permission I had been withholding for all kinds of not-real reasons. I learned a few really important things in this process…

1. If your brain loves variety, don’t shove it into a grid!
The very first habit I picked last year was simple: My butt is in the studio every other day. Not every SINGLE day. this is key for me. Working every other day means that my mind knows tomorrow is something totally different. My brain has always rebelled against doing the same thing every single day. It just detests regularity and gets so excited by variety. I think the Every Other Day structure was the magic formula that my brain was waiting for… it keeps me excited and interested and also seems to prevent burnout really well too. That might not be everyone’s brain, but it’s a great example of figuring out what your brain does crave and working with that.

2. Learning What can Wait, and Assigning it a “When”
The other wonderful thing about this structure is that it keeps my art days and my non-art days more separate. Yes I still have to pick up my kid from school daily, and brush my teeth and feed the cat, but there is actually a lot of regular life stuff that can wait until tomorrow. Oh, the livingroom needs vacuumed? I need to buy groceries? I need to have a meeting or make a DR appointment? No problemo… tomorrow is ready and waiting for all of that! It also works in the reverse… Tired and don’t feel like going to the studio? Hey tomorrow is a non-art day where you can take a creative mental break, so just go for it today! It sort of tricks the brain in the best of ways. It prevents me from worrying about non-art things while I’m trying to make art and it keeps me from feeling guilty that I’m not making art because I have days assigned for that.

I suppose it’s a bit like learning good habits for keeping your house clean… if you assign everything a place that works and is easy for everyone to follow through with, and you build habits around that structure, your house becomes much more effortless to keep clean. I don’t think our minds are really much different than our homes. If we have places and times assigned for the different types of things we need and want to do each week, it’s so much easier for our mind to stay tidy, stay energized and be motivated to follow through.

What ways can you tidy your mind? Are there certain times of days or days of the week that are more naturally creative and can you assign that space for art making and assign other times for non-art things?

Do you like things the same every day, or do you crave variety? Working with what your brain naturally craves helps the flow to be more natural, which makes creating habits around it that much easier. I’d love to hear about your creative habits and the ways you’ve found to keep your mind tidy and your creativity going strong!

- With Love - 
Sarah