Your Creative Intentions: The Monday Post ~ May 19, 2014
A regular creative practice — a daily practice, if possible — is key to staying in touch with how you make meaning. Key to living, not postponing. (Let’s all agree to give up on “someday.”)
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 
haha the corduroys I set out on the bed to put away in the trunk(which is still down in the basement) got put away back in my pants drawer by a well meaning husband. I guess he doesn’t read this blog. so this weeks intentions are
**go get the trunk
fill trunk , place back in basement
walk in the sun for an hour three times this week
stretch daily
paint each day for an hour
limit social media time to half hour each day, set timer
quilt tasks
register kids for camps (why have I slacked on this?? oh yea tight on money
and note to Sarah from last week, I feel the same way about the school day. I am now about to finish my fifth year with both kids at school all day except all day is over by 2pm when my middle schooler is released. I have just now put a stop to saying yes to projects that don’t pay me money. the auction portrait is the last…. I promise!!!!! ( I don’ t count the quilt group tasks, I gain a lot from the pleasure of their company)
lol — I can’t believe your husband actually puts your clothes away, Maureen!! My mouth is hanging open in admiration :-O
I’m with you on the social media limits. My personal usage has gotten out of hand again. I’m going to join you in that challenge for this week, OK? I get stuck in the gray area sometimes, because I manage social media for three of my clients, but that’s kind of a lame excuse. I can set the timer and not look at personal notifications during that time. RIGHT??
Last week my client work took a hit as I spent almost two days migrating my household and business bookkeeping to PocketSmith. My hope is that in the long run, this will save me a lot of time — no more hours spent inputting transactions and reconciling accounts.
This week is going to be unusually full — driving down to NYC to see the reading of a dear friend’s play tonight and then driving home! Yes, it’s about four hours each way, but my daughter has agreed to babysit the little boys this afternoon and evening (my husband returned to Seattle) — and even though I won’t get home until the wee hours of the morning, it’s worth it. I can’t pass up this opportunity to celebrate creativity with a very special friend!
Later this week the little guys and I are flying to Seattle for a visit — so this means that I won’t have much work time all told. Must be super focused. I’ve already got the Pomodoro app running on my phone this morning 😀
Last week’s creative/well-being intentions:
* Ease back into daily morning centering practice w/Morning Pages & intention journaling [yes]
* Daily reading [no]
* Working from my planner every day [yes]
* Focus on client work this week — use planning sheets and timer [partial derailment by aforementioned bookeeping migration]
* Project Life update [yes]
This week’s creative/well-being intentions are another repeat:
* Ease back into daily morning centering practice w/Morning Pages & intention journaling
* Daily reading
* Working from my planner every day
* Focus on client work this week — use planning sheets and timer
* Project Life update
I have been getting up early every morning to write, and I plan to continue doing that and working on my Blog. I am starting a writing class this week, so my goals for that are to start and do the assignments. I will try to finally finish knitting the baby hat I am working on (before the baby grows out of it!). Other than that, there are birthdays and pre-k graduation to prepare for. I will be busy!
Good to hear Maureen others are in the same boat!
Past week: Painted everyday, except on Sunday. I was immersed in going to the school fete with family, and when I remembered I was completely ruined, so sitting on the lounge watching our weekly episode of Elementary with my husband was to hard to resist…
This week:
Keep painting.
Make time to reflect.
Order some art supplies.
Oh and looking forward to going to a forum in Sydney for Mother Artists on Sunday. The first time I will have been to anything like that.
I’d be happy with two posts on the blog before next tuesday, and a session of sketching for the chicken painting thats been rumbling about in my head. the end of school is looming and i’m soaking up quiet sunlight like nobody’s business. time for reflection, check!