Where to Find Time for Creative Work (a mother’s experience) – 2

After I had read the article “Where to Find Time for Creative Work” by Anastasia, I was full of admiration and – I was surprised by myself.

Full of admiration – because I would fail to live in such a way. I am not so organized and disciplined to keep such a rhythm. It is fine for the one who has got self-discipline in his blood. But a clear-cut plan scares me and a rhythmical lifestyle makes me desire to break it. As if I were imprisoned by myself.

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Of course, not everything is so bad…

And what? Does it mean I always have lack of time to do everything? And what about huge plans? What about the renovation of our apartment? What about our project “Parents’ Ideas”? Quite surprising but already for a year (since the birth of our son) I have been successfully combining all that. How?

Desire – That is What Matters Most

As we all know, one wants what he/she does not have. As soon as the baby comes to this world, he starts absorbing all his mummy’s time. It seems she does not have time for anything else. But her desires are still there! To entertain oneself a bit, to read favourite blogs and to do something, creative, with that old granny’s chandelier… There are tons of ideas but minimum time. And the less time you have the more things you want to do. And the surprising thing is that you really manage to do it – just have a desire…

Listen to Yourself

To feel good and manage to do many things one should not forget to listen to himself. Everybody has periods of high capacity for work. The secret is to catch these periods of activity and do not ignore the SOS signals when the body asks for a break. You should keep balance – and your organism will thank you.

My rhythm is like a sinusoid – the days of high activity are changed by quiet periods. During the “slow” periods, I want to do everything thoughtfully and leisurely. I use this time to have a rest and finish the things I have started doing before. I do everything that needs carefulness and precision during the “slow” periods.

On the days of high activity I enjoy the speed and adroitness which my body demonstrates at that time. Everything that needs physical efforts is done easily (house cleaning, washing of the windows, redecoration of the apartment). During that period, new ideas and plans are pouring in a shower onto me. Though there is one “but”- usually I do not manage to finish the thing which I start in the “fast” period. As if it should be so: for that I’ve got the “slow” period.

Flexible Rythm

I feel much better if I go to bed at a little different time but not too early or too late. Of course, I also have to adjust myself to the baby. If there is no urgent work, I usually go to bed not later than midnight. If the night has been calm (only 1-2 awakenings of my son), I do not continue my sleep after the morning feeding. These extra 2-3 morning hours (while the baby is sleeping) I use for meditation, creative work and getting new information (reading of useful blogs ).

Of course, sometimes it is not easy to get up early. But the most surprising thing is that the more you sleep the harder it is to get up! It may seem a paradox but after Arseny arrived in our family and I started experiencing sleepless nights it has become more easy for me to wake up in the morning and I need much less sleep to feel bright and cheerful.

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Bright morning

Spontaneous Planning

“Spontaneous planning” – sounds like a contradiction. Excessive planning and worrying really kills spontaneity and joyous attitude to the world. Life turns into a race… “Spontaneous planning” is, on the contrary, a way to clean one’s mind from extra thoughts by placing them onto another data medium (paper, computer, Dictaphone, etc.)

Once an idea of “spontaneous planning” dawned upon me and some time later I got acquainted with a book by David Allen – I found almost the same idea there! Though, he calls it “natural planning”. And his idea is developed much deeper – up to a whole system (or method) of time-management known as GTD.

Usually I write down all my plans and ideas into a “writing pad” which is always with me. I use a small phone book (an alphabetic directory). At the end of the book, there is a section “to do” – for the routine work. All the rest of the pages are meant for different ideas for all the aspects of life. The alphabetic directory is a handy way to systematize my notes (for example, everything that refers to the renovation goes under letter “R”). Some of these ideas become plans for realization and go to the section “to do”. All the rest form my personal database of knowledge.

The section «to do» has two functions: 1) it reminds me about the urgent work and 2) shows how much I have done already (I just cross the items out when they are done). It should be mentioned that the look of the page with the made tasks really makes my mood even better and encourages me to work further . When starting doing the things which have been planned, I do not follow an exact scheme but try to chose the most urgent or the most interesting thing to do. Such an approach allows getting more pleasure from any work as the work suits my mood and also guarantees that, at least, something will be done.

When the work is done, you can go to your computer

Natalie

To be contiued… (next time)

Illustrations to the article:

Children’s Cards

* – K. Rotov. 1958; ** – Y. Severin, V. Chernukha. 1965; *** – S. Byalkovskaya, A. Sazonov. 1957