This is the number one complaint that I hear from people who are desperately trying to figure out how they can actually sit down and make something, paint something, draw something, etc. I hear it every single day from many, many people.
Maybe you have a day job. Maybe you have kids. Errands to run. Dinner to make. A family member to take care of. School on top of work. TWO jobs. [Insert being busy excuse here.]
I’m going to give it to you straight. You actually have WAY more time to create than you realize. It doesn’t matter if you’re busy 8 hours a day or 16 hours a day. When you immediately resort to “I don’t have time,” guess what? You won’t have time. There’s a psychology behind this. If you set yourself up with negativity to begin with, it’s impossible to follow through or achieve anything.
I’m challenging you to change this way of thinking. To start, we’re going to do an exercise. I love accountability exercises. There’s something about physically writing something down on paper or logging it in a spreadsheet that really makes me feel much more in control and aware of what I’m doing, what I’m investing in, and where I’m spending my time and energy.
Use this customizable worksheet NOW to start this process.
Remember those habit-forming exercises? They can seem unnecessary and even boring, but guess what? I’m making you do it. Download the worksheet, print it out and start NOW.
ACTION PLAN: Every time you start doing something, no matter what it is, write down the time and what you’re doing. Start now. At this moment, you're reading about investing in yourself by simply reading this! When you switch tasks, write down the time and what you’re doing. Keep this going until you go to bed. Then start again tomorrow when you wake up. Include everything: shopping, going to the bank, getting ready in the morning, reading emails, playing games on your phone, scrolling Instagram, exercising, picking up the kids, etc. Do this for a week.
At the end of the week, take time to tally up your activities and assign them to categories at the bottom. How much time did you spend on your phone... aimlessly scrolling?
I’m going to ask you again.
How much time did you waste on your phone? Watching TV? 👀
Smartphones feature screen time, as does Instagram. You can see that information there, but it will make more of an impact if you physically log that time yourself. You might even find that as you log it, you stop spending as much time doing it.
Do you notice any patterns in your time log? Is there some dead time in the morning or evening that you could insert a block of time dedicated to creating? This can be 15 minutes or even an hour. It doesn’t take much. You don’t need to get out an entire art desk setup to be creative.
Want a little boost? Take my free 10-day sketchbook challenge! It might be just what you need to kick off your creativity again.
JOIN THE CHALLENGE HERE!
