Simple ways to make daily creating easier
Do you find it hard to pull the momentum to create and make something every day? I do! Some weeks it just comes, the excitement of pulling out my supplies and sitting with the project.
But some weeks it’s like dragging myself along a prickle-covered yard. Hard and tedious, and something I really am not going to do. Ever. And to clear the weeds is too much energy that I can’t even start the job.
So, I have to keep finding ways to slowly step through the weeds. To make a little pathway that I can walk through, or crawl through.
Here’s just a few ways that I help myself to make sure I’m making, if not every day, then at least some days each week. Or, perhaps once a week. And I do find that when I start making, when I crawl through those prickles, that the path becomes a little easier.
Have you ever seen a field that animals (cows, kangaroos, humans) walk on every day. The grass gets flattened, then beaten down, then the path becomes visible, then you can see the earth underneath the grass. Then it’s a whole proper path that keeps being walked on.
This is what – hopefully – happens when we get up each day and attend our making. When we follow the same path each day.
My brother told me a while ago about the way that when goats walk along a path everyday it becomes a well-worn path, but when they come down from the mountains only once or twice a year then the path has time to grow back again.
Anyway, let’s leave the animals and prickles and path analogies aside. Let’s talk about how I set myself up to get back into my making. Let’s also mention, that this doesn’t always work. That sometimes I don’t show up every day, or every week or even every month. But that each day can be a new day to start again. (You don’t need to wait for the start of the week, or the start of the month. You can make today be the start of the new making season).
Here's my how-to for making it easier to get back into your making cycle:
Be planned and prepared. Have your supplies ready for your daily making. If you have to work out what project you’re doing each day, then it takes away time from your making. It puts the focus and energy onto the supply-choosing and not the project-doing.
Tidy one box or basket for that project. Have only the tools, materials, and supplies for that one project. Don’t put other things in ‘just in case’. If you open the basket each morning and are greeted with a potential choice of what you’re making, then the decision fatigue sets in.
Have the basket within easy access for each day. I don’t have a studio (insert super sad face here), so I keep this one basket in the loungeroom. My son has a shelf with his toys, and I have one shelf with my basket. It’s easy to pull out and easy to pack away again. This means that I can be ready for making in the moments when I have time. And I can also pack it away easily.
Chose a time for the making. In the mornings I make my son’s lunch, then sit down with my morning coffee. It’s not a quiet ‘me’ time, because I’m constantly reminding him to get his uniform on, brush his teeth, pack away his toys, not to start a new game. I love watching him draw or play with modelling clay in the mornings, but oh uggghhh it really is hard when the clock keeps ticking along. But, during that time, when I know his lunch and school bag are packed is when I sit and make. It’s not always focussed just on that, and it’s interrupted, but it’s time.
As making is also my work, I sit and keep doing my making after they’ve left for the school run, often stitching of small projects. I *try* to not scroll social media, though I am not always so good at this. I try instead to sit and focus. I spend half an hour after they leave, until about 8.30am doing my work. Then I make the beds and start work. Officially tell myself I’m starting work. But sometimes my work involves the sewing or making if I’m working on prototypes or projects for my online courses.
I have small projects for these small moments of making. Especially if my creative mojo has been lost, then I give myself a little entry into the making. Think small steps. This is something that I can hold in one hand. Something that I can finish in a short amount of time. Depending on the project, this might be a week or so.
Some of the small projects that I like working on are often little bags or pouches. I can create the stitched piece of fabric to begin with. This can be created without worrying about a pattern or making mistakes. You can simply work on little patches and stitch away as you like.
Remember, though, to have just the fabric you’ve already chosen for that little project. You don’t want to be doing the choosing each day. You want to pick up the fabric, needle and thread and just start stitching.
On a weekend, or when I have longer time to spread out my supplies and focus, then I sort out my next project. Right now, as I’m writing this, I’m working on two active (as opposed to my other wips) projects. They’re in different baskets depending on what I want to do on any given day. But these projects need to be decided upon, the supplies gathered and sorted.
So, when I have a bigger space of time is when I work this out. I’ll lay out all the fabric, I’ll cut what I need and get out the threads, and which sewing needles I need to match. If I’m making a quilt that involves smaller patches then I organise all the fabric for the quilt, but only put smaller blocks in the daily basket.
I like to think of it in the sense when I do my writing. I create, I do my writing, I write. And then, in another session is when I edit. I don’t do big edits of writing while I’m writing. They’re different processes, different parts of my brain. So, with my stitching projects I do the same thing. Decide on the project and material selection at a different time to when I do that making.
I’d love to hear about the way you do all this. Do you have a big studio with lots of projects waiting to be picked up, do you work on one thing at a time, or do you have lots of little projects to pick up and put down as the inspiration strikes?
This messy basket only took a few minutes to tidy, and made the moments of making more pleasant and much easier.
