Have you ever had an experience where you need to take your own advice? For two years I’ve written about creativity and how to make time for creativity on a regular basis. The advice I give most often is to Just Start. I have found myself in need of this advice after my summer sabbatical. It was the right thing to focus on my family over this summer. However, I missed the regular creativity. After a while in the beginning of the summer, I stopped searching for new ideas for designs and color palette. I stopped thinking of ideas to share in these Studio Notes. These good creative habits were temporarily “out for lunch.” I need to get them back.

I’m someone who needs the structure of getting into the studio at a certain time and working on a certain project. So I told myself I would start just hanging out my studio for an hour every day last week. Something always came up. Granted, some were family emergencies which I needed to help with. But I’m having a hard time being consistent. The ironic thing is I enjoyed being in the studio so much last week.

When I was in the studio last week, I worked on a commission piece as well as an idea for a long-term project. So while it’s easy to say Just Start, it can be difficult to execute. We all have competing demands: jobs, children, extended family obligations, grocery store runs, errands and administrative things that just need to happen. I realized I need the structure of studio time on a regular basis to give my creativity equal weight with other competing demands. More importantly, what I really want is that habit of creativity back, that mindset of always looking for ideas to create art or to write about. So the important thing is not just the time in the studio, but how it changes your thinking by always looking for new ideas to try.

So tomorrow I’m going to be in the studio again and start exercising that creative habit.