🌔 Making Time for Art Checklist 🌔
1. Have a collection of ideas ready to go
2. Stop doing meaningless things
3. Block out time for art in your calendar (and don't change it)
4. Have a designated creating space
5. Do less or delegate
6. Wake up earlier (before work or school)
7. Have a sketchbook wherever you go
8. Do an art challenge

Hello and welcome to another sketchbook Saturday. Today I’ll be sharing 8 tips on how to make time for art while painting this watercolor moon (video is above).

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The first tip I have for you is to have a collection of ideas ready to go. This collection of ideas can be quick sketches in your sketchbook. A folder on your computer. A Pinterest board. A list on a random sheet of paper. Or my new favorite way to collect ideas is by saving Instagram posts. I like to create various Instagram collections to save posts that inspire me. Some examples of my collections are nature photos and inspiring art. 

Having a collection of ideas will save you time so that you don’t have to spend your creating time thinking of what to even create in the first place. It also helps me to consistently think about what I’ll be painting next and kind of day dream about it so that when the time comes for me to paint, I am in the mindset to paint and I feel motivated, excited, and I don’t have to think hardly at all what I’ll be painting. I’ll already have a clear idea.

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The second tip is to stop doing meaningless things. To replace meaningless things with creating time. For example this could be social media and Netflix/TV. If you say you don’t have time for art but yet you’re on social media or watching TV or even YouTube videos for more than 10 minutes a day, you do have time. You just have to make the time. 

There’s something I’ve done that has really enlightened me on the amount of time I spend on Instagram. You can have Instagram notify you once you hit a specific time limit on their platform. When you go to Instagram, click the three horizontal bars in the top right, then click on activity. And you can see how much time you spend on Instagram a day. And you can set up a reminder once you hit a certain amount of time on the app. I set my reminder for 30 minutes. It’s crazy how much time we spend on social media..right now my Instagram app says I spend an average of 1 hour and 4 minutes a day Instagram. I don’t even get on social media anymore for personal things.

And as for TV and YouTube, honestly I only have Netflix with my husband in the evenings for maybe an hour. We usually only watch one episode of a show. I don’t ever watch TV just for myself. And I don’t watch much YouTube anymore either because I try my best to spend my free time creating.

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The third tip is to block out time on your calendar that you can create art. I like to use Google calendar to schedule out my days and keep track of how I spend my time. I like google calendar because it’s on my phone and I can schedule my days from hour to hour.

When you schedule your creating time, try your best to keep it that way. Don’t change that time for anything else. It’s your time and no one else’s time. And try to find at least 30 minutes a day to create. Anyone can find 30 minutes a day. It can even be in 10 or 15 minute chunks.

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The fourth tip is to make a creating space. Have a little space in your home, bedroom, or wherever you can find that is your designated creating space. In this space you can have things and photo around that inspire you and get you in the mood to create. And you can have your art supplies out ready to go when it’s time to create. You can also leave your art supplies out if you have to do something else for a bit and then come back to create.

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The fifth tip is to do less or delegate tasks. I’ve come to the conclusion that my house will never be perfectly clean. I’ve accepted that. I feel like there is always something for me to clean and i used to stress out about it that it would impact my creating time or even when I’m working on my business. Sometimes you just have to do less to have more time for other things that matter like creating time. This could be cooking, cleaning, doing things for others that they can do themselves. Of course I’m not saying to eat delivery every night or never clean your house again, but could you exchange an hour a week of cooking or cleaning or whatever for creating time?

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The sixth tip is to wake up earlier. If you could find an hour to create before work or school, that’s 5 hours a week. That’s a lot of time to create. I know of some people who wake up at 5am so that they can focus on the first hour of their day for themselves. They work on something that matters to them and brings them joy. Also, I think creating art the first hour of waking up would be the perfect way to start the day. Since I work from home on my art business, I don’t have to wake up early to make time, but if I were in school or had to work a 9-5, I would most likely be waking up early to make time for art.

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The seventh tip is to have a sketchbook. If you have a sketchbook you can take it with you to work or school or appointments, and you can create art during breaks and chunks of time where you don’t have anything to do.

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And the last tip is to do an art challenge. You can start with a week challenge or a 30 day challenge. This will give you a kick in the pants to create art and kind of make you make time for art. And then once you’re finished with the challenge, you will probably be much better at making time for art. And you can have your art challenge be whatever you want. It could be for a certain medium like watercolor or a certain subject like flowers or animals, it could even be tiny works of art like 4x4 paintings. You can even set a time limit for your challenge, like 30 minutes a day.

How do you make time for art? Comment and let us know! I’d also like to know your thoughts about these Sketchbook Saturdays and other topics you’d like me to talk about.