For the past few months, I’ve felt like I haven’t been in full control of my time. Life moves so quickly; between having a full-time job, doing chores and errands, and spending time with friends and family, I’ve been finding it difficult to carve out sufficient time for myself and my creative work. It’s so easy to “let your life live you” rather than the other way around. Throughout most of 2019, it’s definitely felt as though my life has been living me.
Social engagements and daily maintenance can pose an especially dangerous threat to those seeking to make a life in the arts. I’m constantly making plans with friends, which is a wonderful problem to have, but it comes at a cost. On top of that, there are so many hours that slip away from menial tasks like going to the grocery store and washing dishes. Individually, these chores and engagements don’t matter much. I’m happy to spend time with loved ones and certainly enjoy doing so. However, when combined with every other aspect of life, they become a serious imposition on my time and mental energy which could otherwise be channeled into writing or making music.
I’m not suggesting that we should never take the time to have lunch with mom or grab a beer with a buddy, I’m a big fan of doing both, but I’m finding the trick is to be more deliberate with your time and not make such choices impulsively. With the New Year right around the corner, I’ve been reflecting on my habits, identifying the ways in which I’ve been spending my time, and making a plan to take back control of my life and rededicate myself to my creativity. For me, that means making the extra effort to be more focused, disciplined, and overall more mindful in my daily activities.
Nowadays, “being mindful” has almost become a cliché. There’s so much content and so many services advertising mindfulness, specifically meditation, that it can feel like a marketing scheme rather than honest life advice. However, a cliché usually becomes a cliché because it’s true. I’ve made attempts at becoming more mindful many times in the past but it’s proven to be a difficult regimen to stick to, largely due to the aforementioned social obligations. In the past, I’ve gone through phases during which I would practice meditation. It’s no secret that meditating is a key component of becoming more mindful. I’ve realized, though, that there’s much more we can do. This is a list of steps I’ve been taking in order to become more mindful, more focused, and overall lead a healthier creative life.
Learn How To Say ‘No’
There’s no way around it, creating things takes time. It’s astonishing how many hours go into recording a song, writing a chapter of a book, or making a YouTube video. We as creatives have to find these hours anywhere we can if we’re to get anything done. The first step, and often the most painful one, is to learn how to say no when you’re invited to events. Discipline yourself to stay at home or go to a coffee shop and be productive with that extra hour or two. I frequently think about this quote by Warren Buffet:
“The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”
When there is both creative work and personal development to be done, it’s important to heed Buffet’s wisdom and reserve enough time for yourself. This is easier said than done, in my experience. When friends call with an invitation to an event, to grab lunch or get a drink, it’s easier to say yes. Personally, I struggle with saying no because I don’t want my friends or family to feel slighted if I turn them down. I also have a fear of people developing an image of me as a loser who doesn’t like having fun. (Might sound ridiculous, but it’s a real fear that I imagine plenty of people have. It’s like a less jokey version of FOMO.)
In my mission to seize control of my life, I’m trying to internalize the fact that these people in my life likely won’t feel slighted anyway. Most of the time they probably won’t think twice about it. For me, it’s a matter of working through the layers of social anxiety I’ve collected over the years and not assuming that others will be offended when I do what’s best for me. And besides, if someone does give you a hard time when you say you need to stay home and work on your project, those might not be the kind of people you want in your life anyway.
Social Media Reform
My second step to being more deliberate with my time is to reconsider my relationship with social media. I deleted the Facebook app off of my phone nearly two years ago and I haven’t regretted it once. However, I still can’t imagine doing the same with Instagram or Twitter. They feel so integral to self promotion and any shred of widespread, social growth that to delete them is nearly unthinkable. In the past few weeks, I’ve spent roughly the same amount of time as I usually do on Instagram. But rather than scrolling through my feed aimlessly, as a source of mind numbing entertainment, I’ve been striving to be better about using the app.
My mindset has recently shifted toward treating these social media sites like tools, rather than distractions. I’ve been using those 45-60 minutes a day to post stories, create engaging posts, and interact with other users whose content I admire. For many people, this is nothing new. Plenty of people, be them musicians, bloggers, or influencers, already understand this idea, but for many others such as myself, it’s a difficult transition to make. In the end, I know that my minutes of screentime haven’t changed much, so I’m no saint, but I also know that what I do with those minutes has been shifting and transitioning toward more healthy, mindful practices.
Go For A Walk
It likely goes without saying that exercise is a crucial aspect of leading a healthy life, both physically and mentally. Even if you don’t have the time or motivation to exercise (which we all should, that’s a whole other conversation) you can still find a wealth of calm and inspiration by simply going for a walk. I’ve always appreciated the tried and true axiom that great ideas are born in the shower, and I find that it extends to activities like walking, biking, or going for a drive. My personal favorite is walking, though. It’s a similar effect to taking a shower because it’s a simple activity that encourages you to clear your mind.
If you’re ever feeling stuck or stagnant in a creative venture, or in life in general, I recommend going for a walk to clear the mind. For me, a good walk along the river or through a park is tantamount to meditation. There’s something about the left-right-left-right amongst nature that makes my stress and anxiety dissipate and allows me to activate my creative engine. I’ll go for a walk with the intention of getting some creative work done along the way, but without putting too much pressure on doing so, and eventually, the work naturally comes because that’s what I want to be thinking about once my mind is clear of distraction. I can usually get a decent outline worked out in my head while I walk, then when I get home I’m energized to sit down and type it all out. Plus, going for a twenty or thirty-minute jaunt is a healthier and more enjoyable alternative to sitting in front of a computer with writer’s block.
Seek Out What Inspires You
One of the simplest tricks to being efficient with your time as an artist is to maintain a level of inspiration. It’s almost impossible to create anything if you feel flat, bored, or unmotivated. Inspiration can come from anywhere, but most times it comes by way of ingesting the same type of content you wish to create. This gets new ideas flowing and encourages you to syphon techniques for your own work. If you’re trying to be an author, go read a good book or join a book club. If you want to be a musician, go to local concerts, listen to artists you admire, and follow curated playlists on Spotify. If you’re a filmmaker or photographer, watch some good cinema. For me, it’s a combination of all three. This tip can pretty much be applied to anybody, though, not only artists. It doesn’t matter what your interests are, what matters is seeking out inspiration that will keep you motivated to continue creating your own work.
Pretty much everybody already listens to music and watches TV. However, there are ways to do so in a more mindful and disciplined manner. If you’re anything like me then you’re prone to spending copious amounts of time deciding what to watch on Netflix. There are nights where I’ll flick through their catalogue for half an hour before I land on something that interests me. This is a time suck and it also leads to many nights of watching the same things over again. One way to remedy this habit is by choosing what to watch ahead of time and trying to set appointments with yourself for your media intake.
Think about it like making plans with some friends to see a movie at the theater on Friday night. You decide in advance which film you’re going to see, which night and at what time, right? You can do the same thing for what you want to watch at home. The best way to do this is to find a movie recommendation website or Instagram page you like. I myself started a page on Instagram called Ya Oughta Watch (which you can follow @yaoughtawatch – shameless plug) where I recommend great films that are on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, or Hulu. And believe me, there are countless other recommendation services you can choose from, not just for movies, but for shows, books and music too. Just pick a service or page that you enjoy, read through their recommendations, pick one that appeals to you, and budget the time for later in the week.
This might not be realistic for every night of the week, but making a set plan just one or two nights per week can save you time and energy. Plus, you’ll likely end up watching a lot of really great films, ones that you wouldn’t have otherwise known about, rather than picking something at random based mostly off of a thumbnail. Sure, not everybody enjoys watching films as much as I do. But remember, it’s a principle that can be extended to most anything you may be passionate about. Ingesting fresh, quality content that you haven’t seen before is a simple and powerful way to stay inspired.
It takes time to incorporate new habits. It also takes dedication and consistency to solidify them as innate aspects of your lifestyle. Forming healthier practices doesn’t happen overnight, but then again, neither does success. I’ll be the first one to admit that all these tips are an ongoing journey for me. Even as I write this, I know that it will always be easier to stay the way I already am, to not care about being mindful, and to spend my time recklessly. It’s almost always more fun to have a drink with friends than stay at home and write those 500 words, or whatever your goal may be. What we can try to remember is that while it might be more fun, it likely won’t be as rewarding in the long run.
I’m not fooling myself. I know there will be times when I still catch myself scrolling through Instagram and laughing at memes. I know there will be nights where I spend an hour deciding what to watch on Netflix because I feel too worn out to make a decision, let alone get any writing done. And you better believe I’m still going to take time to hang out with my friends and family when I can, because those moments are important and I cherish them. I simply might not be so quick to say yes all the time anymore. That way, the moments I do spend with people become even more special. Then I can go back home, back to my desk, and feel good about the fact I made a deliberate choice to take some personal time. Then finally, I can get back to work because, like so many creative people in the world, I have work to do and it’s not going to do itself.
– Michael
