Three Creative Studios

Last week, here and on the MQResource site, we discussed Creative Discipline. I’m continuing that thought this week but focusing more on the discipline side. You can only be so creative without discipline. I impose discipline with to do lists.

Yes, lists, plural. Like potato chips, one is not enough! Each has a different focus but they all relate to each other because each wants some of my time. They all also support the BIG LIST of goals. Today I’ll share how I keep my lists and my opinions about the advantages of list making. You can read the first part of the article with links about making lists on MQResource. This article is about how I use lists.

Overriding everything are my life goals. This list has everything from retirement timelines, our investment goals to my personal creativity goals. It’s a short list and very simple. Life goals, from my perspective, are about priorities and we really can only manage a few of them. I keep this list private and don’t really share it with anyone. A Life Goal List helps me determine what’s important for me to do each month/week/day and also help me manage where and how I spend money.

My long-term and short-term to do lists need to eventually add up to meeting one or more of the above goals.

For work, I have project plans for the individual projects that I manage but I also use Outlook tasks to track daily tasks that need to be done. I review the list at the beginning of the day to focus my work and I update it at the end of each day. Having a current work list allows me to walk out of the office without work on my mind. I don’t need to remember anything because it’s all written down! I can now turn my brain toward home and my creative side.

I have used several different tools for my home/personal and creative lists. I have used paper, Word documents, my blog and am currently using a spreadsheet in Google Docs. Because it’s on Google Docs I can access it from any computer and add/update as I think of things. The tool doesn’t matter. You have to find the tool that best fits your style. Some people need to be able to make a pencil line through the item and see it “marked off”. Some just want to see the page/screen empty. If your list isn’t working for you, find another tool. I recently purchased a Droid phone and am starting to check out the many to do list apps that are available.

My friend, Barbara, will always use paper. She used to have a deck of index cards that she kept every day. Now she uses a Franklin Planner. But the point is that she writes a new list every morning and she accomplishes an incredible amount of things every day. She always has.

I have a list for “Home” things that really covers everything that is not work-related or related to my creative side. I try not to make this overwhelming. For example, over the Christmas break I wanted to go through the house on my “Goodwill tour” to clean out closets, the basement and everything else and get rid of things I didn’t need. If I had listed “clear out excess stuff”, I would still be working on that one task. Instead I put a 1-hour task on every day to clear out something. At the end of the week I was not actually done but I had created 2 truckloads of stuff for Goodwill. Everything else can wait until the next clear out project. The house looked better than it did the week before so my mission was accomplished! Don’t let your list become overwhelming and keep tasks to manageable increments.

My “Creative” list includes everything for my fabric dyeing business, 3 Creative Studios and my current creative projects. This article was on the list. I have a separate list of projects in process that aren’t receiving any attention. That list is really just there to attempt to keep me from starting new projects! It doesn’t work so well – that’s not a “to do” list, it’s a “didn’t do” list! I work my Creative list the same as the Home list. Tasks are identified in manageable time increments and I spread large tasks over days or weeks.

For me, keeping lists simply helps me focus my energies so that I am using my time in the most productive way possible. Otherwise, I am off starting new projects and just creating even more tasks!

How do you keep your lists? Come on over to the 3CS Forum or MQResources Forum and let us know.

So after reading Vicki’s excellent post on Creative Discipline and what works for her I thought I’d offer a few comments on what works for me.  Like Vicki, I have no children because of missing maternal genes.  But like she said in her post, everything has an up side for someone and in this case for me, not having children to take care of means one less thing I have to work into my day.

but unlike Vicki, I do clean my house but I don’t stress over it when it doesn’t get done.  I don’t like clutter so I am mindful of when things start to pile up and tend to deal with them as they happen.   I found that adopting a “clean as I go” habit rather than waiting and cleaning everything all at once works better for me.

And I do cook.  As a matter of fact I cook a meal for dinner every night.  Now granted that may not be a big dinner every night and sometimes it’s just pizza or sandwiches but we have a rule in my house that every night we sit down and have dinner together.  I love to cook so scheduling time into my day to do it is not a problem for me.

Now I don’t work full time but there are still a lot of time wasters that I have to be mindful or they’ll take over and cut into my studio time.  The first is general errands like grocery shopping and things like that.  I make it a point to save all my errands up and do them in one trip rather than going out every day to do one thing.   I always go the stores during off hours, usually getting there just as they open so I can get in and out quick.   I rarely go to the post office.  When I have to ship something, I use click and ship at usps.com and then schedule a free pickup so the mailman picks up the package the next day.

I do just about all my studio supply shopping online.  I’ve found reputable online retailers that I like to buy from and probably 95% of my studio supplies get delivered to my door via the UPS man.  For me, it’s worth it to pay shipping charges for the benefit of not wasting time driving to and from the store and having walk up and down the aisles looking for what I need.

I am careful not to over commit myself and I have learned how to say no.  It’s easy to get caught up in volunteering to help with this cause and the next and to commit to participating in lots of swaps but if you’re not careful these types of things can end up eating up a good portion of the studio time you have available and leave you little time for other projects.

Lastly, I think the thing that keeps me the most focussed is that I am a list maker.  I keep a notebook that always has a running list of what I need to do in it.  If the item has a deadline date then I make sure that I note that next to it so I know when I have to have it done by.  I review the list every day and either scratch things off or add to it.  When the list gets too messy I move the open items to a new page and start with a fresh list.

okay that’s my story – what’s yours?

Today I posted an article on MQResource about developing creative discipline. I get a lot of comments on my blog and from my friends about how much I accomplish. The funny thing is that I feel like I waste a lot of time. I am always thinking of what else I should be doing so that I rarely feel like I utilized my day to its full capacity. But in thinking about the topic and the comments that I get, there are several things that I do that really do allow me more time for creating.

There are some things that are simply circumstantial that help me with time management. Let’s get those out of the way first. They are biggies, and they make a huge difference but everyone has SOMETHING that is an advantage over someone else.

• No children. Having time for sewing was not the reason that we chose not to have children it was the missing maternal genes) but everything has a up side for someone. In this case, children are not abused and I have more creative time.
• I don’t clean my house. One up side of allergies is that I am allergic to dust and all of the cleaning supplies. I will eat beans from a can before I give up Lisa the wondermaid. But, even if you don’t have a cleaning service, you can learn something from someone who does. Almost anything can wait 2 weeks to be picked up or cleaned. I know that Lisa is coming next Wednesday and I’ll pick up my project piles Tuesday night. I spend about 2 hours every 2 weeks getting things off the surfaces where I need her to clean. Even if you clean your own home you can set a schedule for cleaning so that it’s off your mind in between cleaning days. Repeat after me: “It’s not Wednesday, I don’t have to clean.”
• My husband does the grocery shopping and cooking. With food allergies and mostly dead taste buds, I simply do not care about food. But I do clean up after the meal. Don’t spend your time on things you don’t care about.
• Allergies. Because of my allergies we rarely go out to eat and I don’t get to socialize much. I decided that I could either choose to look at it from the dark side (no social life) or the bright side (more sewing time).  By immersing myself in my sewing room – or dye studio – I can forget all of the things that I am unable to do.

I do work a full time job so we are still talking about managing nights and weekends. Here’s what I do. Maybe you can find something in here that will help you. But the underlying message is:

SIMPLIFY

SAVING TIME IS LIKE SAVING MONEY – LITTLE BITS ADD UP OVER TIME.

Every decision that you make is a conscious decision about the priorities in your life. Avoiding a decision is making a decision! You are not selfish if you occasionally say “no”. I love to do things to help other people. I like participating in groups. But I make sure that I select things that I can do and that provide the most benefit.

Additionally, here are a few things that I have done over time. Some are little and some are big. It’s taken years to implement all of this and I am sure I will continue to evolve.

Simplifying my work wardrobe has saved me money and time. This may sound silly but read on, there is logic. About 5 years ago I observed that all of the men that I work with wear nothing but khaki pants and golf shirts. No one thought of that as strange. They were always reasonable professional looking and, more importantly, it looked easy. They had a uniform! I used to be a waitress and I had a uniform which made dressing for work mindless. Could I do the same in my professional life?

It turns out I could. I found a line of clothing that is all black based, machine washable and very professional looking. I shop for work clothes exactly 2 times a year and today do most of that on the internet. By selecting a color base I have reduced the size of my shoe closet from about 60 to 20 pairs of shoes and I NEVER buy a piece of clothing that require dry cleaning.

This approach is not for everyone. It’s not very girly but I decided to trade variety and trends for time. I never go to the dry cleaner, I don’t have to spend a lot of time managing piles of shoes in my closet and I rarely shop. But I still look professional for work every day. NO ONE has ever commented that I have been wearing, what seems to be, the exact same pair of black pants for 5 years. I haven’t. I have 12 identical black pants and 4 pairs of work shoes.

Think about your own routines and habits. Rank them in importance with your creative time. What things are you treating as being greater value that it really is? Would you rather shop or sew?

Dedicated spaces. You can organize any space or project is such a way that you can pick it up and be productive. You space might be a basket or a room. Reference back to that maid comment above. I have to pick up my “piles” ever 2 weeks. I keep my projects ready to go. I have handwork right next to my TV watching chair and can make progress in 10 minute increments. I have at least 1 sewing project set up at a machine at all times and when I decided to have a dyeing business I made sure I had dedicated space. It takes me less than 15 minutes to get set up to start a dyeing session. Every two weeks as I straighten my messes I also think about what I am likely to work on for the next 2 weeks and stage those projects.

Analyze every purchase and keep your home simply. Buying a new car takes time, buying new appliances or a new cell phone or a new TV takes time. It’s not just the time to buy the item, but you have to unpack/store/install/learn how to use/file paperwork and dispose of the old item. My car is 10 years old and it will be replaced when it dies. I have zero interest in trading even 10 minutes of sewing for a day of car shopping. Our TVs are old, we have few appliances and we buy simple ones and keep what we have until they fail. Buying simple appliances means that there are fewer things to break.

Think about everything you have purchased in the past 6 months. How much time did it take to research, shop, purchase, install the new and get rid of the old? Whether you realized it or not, that was sewing time you traded off. This applies to new sewing machines as well. It would be fun to have a new sewing machine but I just do not want to invest the time it would take to learn a new one.

Analyze your fabric/supplies purchases. This falls along similar lines. I learned a lot about myself the year that I participated in Judy Laquidara’s Stashbusting program. I learned how bad I was at buying fabric for projects that I had no hope of ever starting and I learned how much time I spend handling and storing the fabric once I brought it home. Oh, I still buy plenty of fabric but I do buy less. It takes a lot of time just to bring the fabric in your home and put it away, especially if you prewash as I do. If you don’t get it put away it just becomes clutter that eventually dissuades you from entering your sacred creative space.

Analyze your other regular activities. I do not get manicures (sewing and dyeing tears up my nails anyway), I exercise at home saving travel time, I save errands to do all at one time and I shop, pay bills and bank online.

Do you get the picture? This is not about money. Every purchase we make and activity we do costs time. How much time is that costing you? Analyze how you are spending your time.

Would you give up 15 minutes of time getting ready for work for 15 minutes of time to do some sketching over breakfast? Make your routine simpler.

Another time waster is the internet. Ugghhh. That ‘s a big one! I spend hours and hours on the internet each week. I follow about 650 blogs and I use Google Reader to organize them. It’s still a costly time expense but I turned that time into something productive for my own blog, the Field Tripping the Web posts. Honestly, I don’t actually “read” a lot of them. I can clear 100 blog posts from my reader in less about 30 minutes. I simply do not have enough time to read everything. I am skimming through to find interesting fiber posts. I believe the family/personal posts are meant for close family and friends and I don’t read them. I also have a document open while I am reading where I put the links for the next Field Tripping post. When the document is “full enough” I can copy and past it right to the blog. But I have to monitor my internet time very closely. I can waste an entire day there!

If I am going to spend my time doing something, I am always looking for the most efficient way to complete that task. I have done similar analysis with my processes for everything from photographing and listing my Etsy items to doing laundry. ALWAYS ask yourself, “How can I do this better and faster so that I have more sewing time?”

I also think it’s important to get adequate sleep. You cannot be alert, productive or efficient if you are not getting enough sleep. Contrary to popular belief, I do sleep 8 hours every night! Sleep is my daily priority.

If you will start to look at your activities in terms of time, rather than money, you will find that extra time for your creative endeavors. Redirecting 1 hour a week means 52 more creative hours in a year. What can you create with 52 hours?

There are only 24 hours in a day. Spend those hours preciously.

Once you understand how you spend your time. How can you make your creative time the most productive? I’ll talk about that next week.

If you want to discuss this topic further and share the things that you do to bring discipline to your art there are discussion threads open in the MQResource and TCS forums for discussion.