How to Find Creative Time

After hefty doses of The Mindy Project, New Girl, and Glee, I’m feeling recovered from my burnout. In fact, I’m feeling energized at the start of 2014, ready to make strides with my own writing in the first year since 2009 that I’m not in grad school, have an infant, or have taken on a heavy load of freelance work.

I’m determined to make this the year that I move forward with my writing goals. The question is, when and where should I write? I have a full-time job, a young child and husband to spend time with, and chores to complete. And what about you? I’m guessing that, like most creative folks, you probably have a lot of other priorities you’re juggling too. What’s the solution?

My gurus

When I start feeling like there’s just no time, I think about some of my role models. For instance, Tim. Hopkins grad school professor Tim Wendel impressed us with his tale of how he wrote his first book on the metro, longhand in a spiral notebook, when he was working full-time, in grad school (the same writing program we attended), and had two young children. That’s creativity and dedication–and it paid off. Tim’s book got published, and it launched his career as a successful author.

There’s also my best friend G.G. She is mom to two young boys, one with special needs. I know the work that goes into running that household and the exhaustion I feel when I leave after helping out. She does that routine every day, and has still managed to write one very funny romance novel and is close to finishing a second one.

So really, what I’m saying is that I have absolutely no excuse.

Inspiration from varied sources

Something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately is small bits of time. I am a proponent of the Unf*** Your Habitat system, which helps people declutter, organize, and clean their homes in small chunks of time (20 minutes with 10 minute breaks or 45 minutes with 15 minute breaks) when anything else just seems utterly overwhelming. I and my husband have been implementing this system, and it’s working slowly but surely.

Often when you just can’t face cleaning up your whole kitchen, setting a timer for 20 minutes and saying you’ll work until it goes off feels much more manageable. Chances are, you’ll be done in 20 minutes. If you’re not, you may even feel like continuing once you get going.

I recently learned of the Pomodoro technique, which also advocates focusing your attention in small chunks of time (25 minutes). I haven’t read the book yet, but I’d love to check it out.

Setting a timer helps those of us with a “monkey mind” that tends to jump all around focus. If you know you only have 20 minutes, or 45, or whatever, you tend to buckle down to finish your task.

When I asked G.G. what her secrets are, she also talked about this concept of using small bits of time. For instance, she writes for 10-15 minutes in bed in the morning while her kids are waking up and she’s drinking her morning tea.

Throughout the day, she also takes a few minutes here and there to jot notes on her iPad as she thinks of them.

G.G. had some other great tips–look for a guest post from her in the coming weeks.

An inch is a cinch

For busy parents, those with other full-time jobs, anyone who can’t make their creative work their full-time occupation, I think this concept of carving out little bits of time (more if you can, but starting small) is key. Another grad school friend of mine once shared a saying with me that has stuck with me and become one of my mottos: “An inch is a cinch.” In other words, it’s easy enough to just do a little, and it will add up.

So I’m looking for those opportunities, and trying to figure out when my brain works best. I’ve found that evenings after my daughter is in bed are not great for me. At that point, my brain is pretty much mush, and all I want to do is sit on the couch and stare at the television. But maybe I could fit in a half hour or 45 minutes at night, get up a little before my daughter in the morning and write as she plays in the crib with her stuffed animals, and/or put together some words on my lunch break at work instead of taking care of family administrative tasks (which I could save for the evening hours when I’m beat).

I’m also thinking about what I can cut from to make more of these small pockets (Facebook and Twitter, I’m looking at you).

What about you? Where and how do you carve out your creative time in the midst of a hectic schedule? How do you ensure that you’ll have energy to do one of your very favorite activities that often gets neglected?

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