Smile during your creative process.
Today’s TNT (This-N-That) post from Club Creative Studio is about technique in your creative process. I often find myself playing “the waiting game”. You know what this means to an individual on a daily basis. We wait in line, we wait for the mail to come, we wait in traffic, we wait for the dryer to signal the clothes are dry. We wait for the text response, we wait for something to download, we WAIT, WAIT, WAIT!
But wait there is more waiting if you are an artist! It is what we do with that “wait time” when we are creatively working that is important. When an artist has down time, time in which we have to wait for something to dry, wait for something to stick together, wait for something to cure, melt, mold, bake, even sell… we need to also occupy that time to be productive. And guess what? An artist usually fills their wait time with something that takes even more time to wait for, right?
I often find myself doing tasks in the studio that involve multiple skills, steps or focus. It is just part of the nature of the beast of putting constructions together, that forces us to wait for one step to be completed before another is started. Multitasking is nothing new. Multi-focus is the skill that is in question. Being able to move from one task to another quickly is productive if you are organized, goal-oriented, and patient.
Organize your stuff!
Organization
When your supplies and work space are organized, your efforts become smooth and there is less time dealing with details that waste time.
Organization offers the flow of creativity because you can see more clearly and tools are readily at hand where you expect them to be.
Order in your space allows you to see the process in front of you without distractions.
Striving to be more organized can form habits that are productive in day-to-day activities outside of your craft.
Set your goals.
Goal-Setting
Being goal-oriented means you have a focus and outcome in mind. Sometimes in art, that has to be general since we want the over-all outcome to be creative, not totally predicted.
Knowing what you want to do at the start of a process stems from being organized and also grows out of having the foresight of knowing what supplies you need to begin step one.
Inspiration and goals can be used together to give you a mental snapshot of where you want your project to head. Envisioning the plan and product together sparks creativity.
Patience
No doubt about it deadlines and creativity sometimes do not mesh well but, being patient does have its rewards for reaching a time related task.
Setting the pace for creativity will manage your time more effectively. Leaving room in the day for trial and error accounts will be less stressful and more successful.
I practice being patient by moving from one task to another. I try not to get too frustrated with various steps of a complicated or intense project at hand because of those little breaks.
Take into account what your starting point and ending points look like.
Are you organized?
Do you know your goals for your creative process?
Are you patient?
I would like to end this post by sharing one idea that helps me pass time in between projects. The focus on the REWARD, which is different from the word GOAL. As a “reward” to myself as a job well done creatively and in celebration of an accomplished task, I take time to savor. Chocolate and tea work for me!
My “pick-me-up-reward beverage” choice is sweet tea!
Let us know what you do in your daily “waiting game” challenges. Do you have a routine or helpful hint for others that explains why you can be more creative during the times you have to wait in between steps of a project? We’d love for you to share your thoughts below in a comment. Thanks for stopping by the blog, Good luck in your creativity today!
