Whistlestop Web Tour – Volume 42 – Reassessing Goals
In January I wrote a couple of articles on creative discipline and talked about how I keep lists. Even if you are the most disciplined and organized person in the world, occasionally the list gets lost, forgotten or ignored. Today on MQResource, I found a number of links to some web articles for reassessing goals and getting back on track. I thought I’d share here how I deal with it when that happens to me, as it did recently.
I actually get “off list” pretty frequently. Most recently it was because of my little back injury. Having to spend 6 days laying on the floor and not being able to dye or sew much for 2 weeks, put everything on hold. My blog lapsed, my Google Reader filled to capacity and, holy cow, the laundry was out of control!
The first step is to recognize what got you off track. Was it something uncontrollable like a health or family issue? Or was it just a lack of interest or motivation? Your answer to this will likely lead to completely different responses for how you will get back on track.
In my case, this time, life just threw me a curve ball and my priority became healing. This is a situation where the list is very helpful, even if it does lapse. Once I started feeling better, I knew I had good a list to start with even if it was an old list. I use the Task feature in Google so the first thing I did was print a list of all open tasks and then I added all of the new things that had arisen. With a complete list in front of me I could then start to prioritize and reschedule everything. This did not take even an hour but at the end of it I had everything back in order and a plan for the days ahead of me.
But sometimes it’s a lack of interest or motivation that causes me to avoid working my list, or a specific project. Over time I have determined that this is most often caused by having something to do that I don’t really want to do! Usually I deal with it using a reward system. I bargain with myself to spend a set amount of time on the avoided project and reward myself with an equal amount of time working on something that I want. Usually I quickly get over the block and can get the project finished without further procrastination.
The worst case of this was about 5 years ago when I needed to finish a memorial quilt. I designed a quilt that was way beyond my skill level and, on top of that, I was extremely busy with work and did not have large chunks of time to devote to it. The project languished for TWO YEARS while the grieving parents waited for this quilt. Around the same time I really wanted to remodel my sewing room. I took the reward system to an extreme this time. I took 3 months to complete the remodel and clear out old hobbies that I did not want to do any longer to make my space more productive. Then I put everything away except for the memorial quilt. I was so happy to have new sewing space that I was glad to work on any project. I got the quilt wrapped up quickly because I was so excited to spend the time in my new space. The new space also seemed to get me through the technical difficulties I designed into the quilt.
Next time I may not do a complete remodel but taking time to totally clean and reorganize my space would be well worth the effort to get my creative energies focused on completing another languishing project.
Creative Cue 13
Creative Cue #13: SHAKE
Use the Creative Cue as a starting point for a sketch, art work, journal page, photograph, painting, etc. You can use any type of medium you prefer….pencil, chalk, paint, fabric, etc. We hope you will share your results. There are a couple of ways to share:
- Comment on this blog post. In your comment, please share the URL link to your blog post, Flickr photo, etc. To avoid confusion, please provide a link that takes viewers directly to your Creative Cue result, or
- Post your Creative Cue image in the Three Creative Studios forum under the appropriate Creative Cue thread. Click here to get to the forum: http://threecreativestudios.com/forum/, or
- Do both of the above.
Creative Cue 12
Creative Cue #12: RICH
Use the Creative Cue as a starting point for a sketch, art work, journal page, photograph, painting, etc. You can use any type of medium you prefer….pencil, chalk, paint, fabric, etc. We hope you will share your results. There are a couple of ways to share:
- Comment on this blog post. In your comment, please share the URL link to your blog post, Flickr photo, etc. To avoid confusion, please provide a link that takes viewers directly to your Creative Cue result, or
- Post your Creative Cue image in the Three Creative Studios forum under the appropriate Creative Cue thread. Click here to get to the forum: http://threecreativestudios.com/forum/, or
- Do both of the above.
Creative Cue 11
Creative Cue #11: TIP
Use the Creative Cue as a starting point for a sketch, art work, journal page, photograph, painting, etc. You can use any type of medium you prefer….pencil, chalk, paint, fabric, etc. We hope you will share your results. There are a couple of ways to share:
- Comment on this blog post. In your comment, please share the URL link to your blog post, Flickr photo, etc. To avoid confusion, please provide a link that takes viewers directly to your Creative Cue result, or
- Post your Creative Cue image in the Three Creative Studios forum under the appropriate Creative Cue thread. Click here to get to the forum: http://threecreativestudios.com/forum/, or
- Do both of the above.
Whistlestop Web Tour – Volume 40 – Design Blogs
is posted at MQResource. This week I am sharing some of my favorite design blogs.
Creative Cue 10
Creative Cue #10: CLIP
Use the Creative Cue as a starting point for a sketch, art work, journal page, photograph, painting, etc. You can use any type of medium you prefer….pencil, chalk, paint, fabric, etc. We hope you will share your results. There are a couple of ways to share:
- Comment on this blog post. In your comment, please share the URL link to your blog post, Flickr photo, etc. To avoid confusion, please provide a link that takes viewers directly to your Creative Cue result, or
- Post your Creative Cue image in the Three Creative Studios forum under the appropriate Creative Cue thread. Click here to get to the forum: http://threecreativestudios.com/forum/, or
- Do both of the above.
