Oh
artistic person who attempts to instruct others, instruct thyself!
That was the thought going through my head this last week as I paced
around my room looking to do anything—ANYTHING—other than write in the novel I
have been trying to finish for several years. The resistance to sitting down,
the sheer refusal of my pen to touch paper, seemed like an oppression of the
mind and body that was almost spiritual.
I knew what I needed to do. Praise
God for the gift of creativity. Thank Him for the new story ideas that have
brought redemption to the convoluted plot I used to hate so much. Ask for His
strength. Turn on the instrumental music. And just do it.
I can’t say I went about this in a
clear, concise manner, but I did finally sit down and over the course of the week,
wrote about 11,400 words. It’s been a while since I’ve written till my hand was
sore, and it felt exhausting in a good way.
While
going through this little battle with hesitation [confession: I put off
finishing this blog post till the last minute], I thought of a few tips I
didn’t include in my previous post on the pressing problem of procrastination:
1: Find your ideal
time of day.
I
realize a lot of artistic people do not have the luxury I do of being able to
look at a clock like a plate of hours, all available for me to pick and choose
and assign how I wish. But even if you only have a few hours on the weekend,
you are probably still aware of when, during that time, you feel the freshest
and most creative. For me personally, 9 am to noon is usually when I have peak
energy for starting things, and 3 pm to 6 pm is good for “settled in” work.
When you recognize your ideal time, guard it! Protect it from the buzzing
distractions that want to suck the life out of it like mental mosquitos. Hide
your to-do list.
2: Get on “Jewish
Time”.
I
like to start the day clean. I feel antsy sitting down to work with yesterday’s
mess lying mounded around me. I used to spend the fresh morning hours tidying
up, feeling rotten about myself as an artist, then work late into the night to
make up for it, awaking sluggish and facing yet another mess. The vicious
cycle…
Then, recently, I got this idea to
start looking at the day differently. According to Jewish tradition (learned
while watching Fiddler on the Roof several hundred times), the new day
starts at sundown. Light-bulb!
If I follow that concept, I can turn
the low-energy “scrap” hours of the evening into a productive time of clearing
the way for the next morning, when I’ll be fresh and perky again.
I haven’t applied this new schedule
very faithfully yet, but I’m trying, and already I’m seeing good results. I
seem to be getting more done, I no longer have massive piles of laundry waiting
to be put away, and I’m not noticing so many unfinished projects lying dejected
on the floor.
3: Make a
“deal-with-it” box.
This
is where those buzzing mosquitos of distraction can go chill while you attend
to your God-given talents. I have two of these boxes, actually. One is a
“pertinent” deal-with-it box, meaning whatever’s in it needs to get done, and
within a set amount of time. The other is a “whenever” deal-with-it box…also
known as a “black hole”. Things may emerge from it to see the light of day
again…or not. But it makes me feel better to put them somewhere.
When I’m in the middle of peak
creative time, and an idea for a different project, an activity to try, or an
ought-to-do-it chore pops into my head, I just stick it in one of the deal-with-it
boxes and carry on. When evening or an organization day comes, I can dig in. Sometimes
I pull out an item and wonder why on earth I even thought it was worth dealing
with in the first place.
And
finally, I just want to say that this stuff is meaningless. By itself, that is.
Schedules, tips, and clever ideas for time-management aren’t worth anything if
you aren’t paying attention to the One who gave you time in the first place. He
gives us wisdom to organize our time-allotment in useful ways, but most of all
He wants us to be obedient with that time. The Spirit isn’t limited by
our clocks and calendars.
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