Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time which every day produces,
and which most men throw away.
Where do you have small enclaves of time that can be used for your artistic pursuits? Do you spend too much time watching TV or checking your e-mail? Do hours get sucked up by distractions on the internet? Is your day interrupted constantly, so that you have no time to focus and actually get your main tasks done?
One of my clients, a writer found that she was having trouble finding time for a writing project, and the deadline had suddenly got moved ahead. After discussing this with me, she decided for the remainder of the week to only check her e-mail once a day, and not answer the phone while she was working on her writing.
Now this wasn’t making any dramatic changes. It did however take discipline to resist the temptation to answer the phone or check her e-mails. These small changes allowed her to finish the project without putting a major strain on her life.
Tim Ferriss in the “The 4-Hour Workweek:” has some brilliant strategies for cutting down on the work that tends to consume your time without giving you what you truly want. He has many good tips for eliminating time wasters, and advocates the radical approach of only checking your e-mail once a week, and then replying to all of them at once.
What distractions take you away from your art work? Whaf time can you free up for doing the work you are passionate about? Resolve to reclaim some of your time for what matters most. Little step by little step you can train yourself to resist the many distractions of daily life, and carve out more time for your creative self.
Katie,
It is true that activities such as constantly checking email and watching TV can be time wasters. I think the biggest challenge for most of us, is to be consciously aware in the moment that we begin an activity and ask ourselves; “will doing this now (tv watching for instance) bring me long term fulfillment or just immediate gratification?”
I’m not suggesting that immediate gratification is a bad thing but rather I am advocating that we make a conscious choice instead of just functioning out of habits. OK–gotta go check my email now! 😉
So true, Dee, about being consciously aware of when we are doing these activities, and the question you ask is a great one.
What is often quite difficult is getting to the point of being really conscious when you are time wasting.
I find I can easily do these things almost automatically, and the trick is training myself not to. E-mail being the hardest because I work on the
computer often, and so the temptation is there to just check one e-mail, and of course that’s like just eating one chocolate
with a whole bar in front of me.