Every Monday is Tip Day! Grab a cup of coffee and get over the Monday morning bump with tips, tools, and inspiration from Perch.
This Week: Be Intentional
Making time to nurture creativity can seem like a wonderful thing that is worthy of aspiring to, but in the face of real world demands, a creative practice often gets pushed to the back burner. Many times, creative ideas are bookmarked, clipped, and stored away but never revisited. We tell ourselves, “There simply isn’t time.”
Or space. Or resources. Believe me, I can relate.
My move last weekend went really well (by the way, thank you all for your well wishes – they meant so much!). However, there are some aspects of the transition that have been difficult – namely, the lack of a dedicated creative space. In our old house, I had an entire office to myself that I could decorate or rearrange however I wanted, whenever I wanted. In our beautiful but tiny apartment, I have a corner of the kitchen table. Much of my creative resource stockpile is in storage, and I’m down to my laptop and a basket with my files.
Lucky for me, creativity requires constraint. I already have a few ideas in the works.
While it may be completely unrealistic to make time for free association exercises before beginning every creative project, it is possible to make time room for creativity to flourish in everyday life. You just have to be intentional. Here are a few of the steps that I am taking:
1. Make it a mental priority. By keeping even just the notion of creativity as a priority at the forefront of your mind, you leave the door open for inspiration to enter. I have found that keeping my eyes out for my Art Is Everywhere posts helps me be more aware of the art around me in the world.
2. Find a way to get involved with other people. Accountability – especially light, social accountability is a great way to be encouraged your creative pursuit and be motivated to stick with it. Consider joining Melanie’s twelve-month Everyday Creative challenge, or one specifically geared to your specialty. For example, Flickr groups host a number of challenges for photographers of varying specialties throughout the year. I’m taking a short story class right now, and I’m actually working on a short story that I’m excited about. It’s thrilling to get feedback from my peers, and the pressure of weekly deadlines keeps me going.
3. Just begin. Start a project. Have one that’s half-finished? Take it out tonight and make some headway. Or start over. Get out a canvas and start painting, or go to the fabric store and pick up a few new swatches or a new pattern. The most difficult challenge to overcome is usually one of stagnation – that feeling of being half-way through and just being stuck, or of being inactive for so long that you don’t know how to get going again. Determine to get out of a rut and just start something. It doesn’t have to be an important or “worthy” project. It can be anything. The important thing is to just get moving. You can always re-work it later.
How do you stay intention with your creativity? Please share your own tips in the comments!
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