Your Creative Intentions: The Monday Post ~ October 7, 2013
Commit to a regular creativity practice. Regularity — a daily practice, if possible — is key to staying in touch with how you make meaning.
What are your plans for creative practice this week? Given the specifics of your schedule, decide on a realistic intention or practice plan — and ink that time in your calendar. The scheduling part is important, because as you know, if you try to “fit it in” around the edges, it generally won’t happen. An intention as simple as “I will write for 20 minutes every morning after breakfast” or “I will sketch a new still life on Wednesday evening” is what it’s all about. If appropriate, use time estimates to containerize your task, which can make a daunting project feel more accessible.
Share your intentions or goals as a comment to this post, and let us know how things went with your creative plans for last week, if you posted to last week’s Monday Post. We use a broad brush in defining creativity, so don’t be shy. We also often include well-being practices that support creativity, such as exercise and journaling.
Putting your intentions on “paper” helps you get clear on what you want to do — and sharing those intentions with this community leverages the motivation of an accountability group. Join us!
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Studio Mothers: Life & Art 
I actually want to write a thousand words a day, draw something happy or fun on Wednesdays, and read the whole Will Grayson,Will Grayson for this week. I don’t know how I will accomplish these things but I am hoping that I could. 🙂
Awesome, js! Do you have any specific windows for getting these things done?
none actually… 😦 do you have any recommendations? 🙂
So hard with a little one! Can you mark a few windows in your calendar, as you would with an appointment? Evening, early mornings, or naptime?
I guess…early mornings?
My updated planning tools are working well for me — and I’ve added that topic to my blog post list. Meanwhile I managed to squeeze in an unplanned Project Life catch-up session and finished August as well as September over the weekend. So satisfying!
The most significant change I made over the weekend was to get HARD CORE once again about limiting my time on social media (Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook) and Words With Friends. I realized that my IPhone had become a little too attached to my body and was cutting into my morning practice time as well as my evening reading time. So now I’ve limited those activities (in addition to e-mail, which was already limited to work hours) to between of 8:30 am and 6:00 pm. I’ve found that restricting my morning and evening usage has had a dramatic effect on not only my productivity but also my sense of well-being. (I go through this cycle a couple of times a year — the screen time starts to encroach and then I hit a breaking point and push it way back again.) If you’re feeling crunched for time and feeling at loose ends, I highly recommend this strategy.
This week I will polish a short story for a contest entry — I already incorporated feedback from my writers’ group but need to take another pass through after I let it sit for a few days.
Looking forward to a good week — focus, presence, enjoyment, productivity. The little boys are going to Grandma’s for two nights this weekend, which means bonus “do whatever I want” time. Woohoo!
Last week’s creative/well-being intentions:
* Daily morning centering practice w/Morning Pages & intention journaling [yes]
* Daily reading [yes]
* Complete piece for Thursday writers’ group [yes]
* Focus on new planning system; refine as the week progresses [yes]
This week’s creative/well-being intentions:
* Daily morning centering practice w/Morning Pages & intention journaling
* Daily reading
* Final polish of short story for contest entry