How to make time for art is an ongoing question I ask myself. I’m sure other artists ask themselves how to make time for art and maybe you do too. I want to share my tips with you for how I have time to make art and how I find pockets of time in my busy schedule to get creative. Learn how to make time for art below!
How to Make Time for Art- tip #1
Track Your Time:
In order to have more time to make your artwork it is important that you understand how you spend your time. You can do this by tracking your time. Create an Excel sheet or grab a pen and some paper and start making note of how much time you spend on typical tasks. Once you have totalled how you spend your time you will be able to assess if there is any room for improvements that could give you more time to make art.
For example, check your screen time usage on your smartphone. It is amazing to see that we spend hours (2-3) even more scrolling on our phone. Ask yourself how you can reduce it. Maybe set a timer. Check your email only once or twice a day, have an intention before going on social media so you avoid mindless scrolling.
Another time waster is mindless tasks like folding laundry, or doing the dishes. I try to listen to a podcast or audiobook during this time or I give someone a phone call.
A big culprit is watching TV. Again, it’s important to have an intention and limit your TV time. What could you be doing instead? Working out, painting, reading, making art?
How to Make Time for Art- tip #2
Make a Plan
Now that you have tracked your time and have a better understanding of how you are spending your time you can begin to make a plan. Your goal is to make more time for your art. So ask yourself what can you give up or shorten the time to give you more time to make art.
You could agree to have a night with no TV and this day of the week could be a painting day. You could reduce your screen time by an hour a day. You could leave work earlier instead of staying late all of the time. You could wake up an hour earlier than normal.
See how much time you can give yourself to make art. Start small with 30min. to an hour and see if you can add more time to make art later on.
How to Make Time for Art- tip #3
Make a Habit
If possible try to block off time in your online or paper planner to schedule yourself time to make art. When making art make sure to limit your distractions. Put your phone on airplane mode. Tell your loved ones this is your uninterrupted time and they should respect that if this is something you truly care about and value!
Bonus Tip:
Habits help to stick when they are goals. Make sure you are clear about why you want to make art and why it is important to you. Does it bring you joy? Is it stress relief? Once you have established why making art is important to you -you should continue to want to strive to make time for it. Realizing why art is important and giving myself art goals has helped me to stay motivated in making art. For me the process of making art calms me down and makes me feel more relaxed so I try to fit it into my schedule whenever possible. You can check out my article about tips for achieving your art related goals - here!
There will be days or weeks that you don’t make art and that is okay. Give yourself some grace and know that you will make art again! You can read this post about tips for adding freshness to a stale art practice here!
Related Articles:
6 Tips for Hitting Your Art Goals
How to Add Freshness to a Stale Art Practice
How to Stay Motivated as an Artist
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