Compounding Creative Habits

I'm still working on this theme of compounding small, daily creative habits. I want to share this magical idea and show you how you can benefit from it too.

Let's just jump in feet first here.

What skill do you want to master?

Drawing? Song writing? Writing short stories? Pottery? Sewing? Even just being more creative in general...

Building up a substantial body of work can take yearrrrsssssss and years and years.

Ok, now that we feel hopeless and that precious time has been wasted, let's see what we can do about this problem, right now. Instead of looking at the MASSIVE picture of having mastered our skill and being rich and famous for it, let's work backwards and start with today. What is the ONE THING you can do right now that you can practice to get you to that future skill?

Let's avoid 'shiny object syndrome' and just stick to that 'one thing'.

Making the time

I understand that everyone's day looks different and I'm not going to tell you to set your alarm for 5am to squeeze it all in. Be conscious of the little snippets of day that you can cram your creative practice into. Can you find a way to make yourself accountable?

Do you have 5 minutes whilst your food is cooking? Or whilst your tea is brewing? Can you scribble something out whilst you're waiting in a queue? In fact, your ideas might be even better if they're influenced by your temporary surroundings!

-- An idea that I love is to make something small everyday for a loved one's lunch box. Write them a joke, draw them a picture, tell them a short story and then pop it with their lunch (or stick it to the fridge) as a little surprise for later. A great way to create a daily deadline for yourself and to share your idea with someone else. --

Simply think about it.

Can you just simply think about your creative ideas whilst you're brushing your teeth? A bit of advance planning for when you do have the time to create. Can you create that brain space on your commute? Making use of that idle time and not filling it with podcasts and music.

Why I started a creative habit

I wanted to do something more meaningful with my time when I was off sick. I knew I'd be off for a minimum of 8 months and I didn't want to spend that time time scrolling through social media and having nothing to show for it. I wanted to do something that was relaxing and mindful and that was a way of expressing how I was feeling as well as a reminder of the good things or little stories that came from my day. I started my drawing journal and gave each page somewhere between 5 minutes and 2 hours a day.

My Drawing Journal on display at HOME, Manchester

Shortly after I finished the journal, it was accepted to be a part of the Manchester Open exhibition at HOME, Manchester. I never expected it to become a public piece of work and felt really proud to see it on display.

I'm now on drawing journal number 4 and I don't plan on stopping any time soon.

Go and be creative!

Our time, energy and attention are so important, a creative practice can help to protect them and can encourage you to be more mindful about your day.

Enjoy being an amateur in something, you don't have to share it with the world and you don't have to be perfect at it. Enjoy the satisfaction of small steps towards your bigger project.

Have a bit of fun, test new ideas, express yourself and enjoy the feeling of accomplishing something small every day.

What one small thing could you do every day that will build up to a bank of ideas to work from in the future?

EVEN MORE IDEAS!

• Join my mailing list and I'll send you a list of 30 prompts that will spark some ideas for you (as well as regular monthly ideas and the occasional story).
  

• Create a Pinterest board of things you love that you can refer back to, I use my Dwelling and character boards quite often to get some fresh inspiration
  

• I love this TedTalk by David Litchfield about drawing everyday

• We've had John Kenn Mortensen's book Sticky Monsters on our shelf for years, Mortensen finds time around bringing up his twins to make a drawing on a sticky note - and then made a book from them.

Starting A Creative Journal

Choose yourself a simple book and a simple writing or drawing tool.

Right. Let's get started.

Why start a creative journal?

Ideas buzz around and sometimes they land on you, if you don't take note and at least jot it down somewhere, it might fly off again into the life abyss of stuff.

By noting down words, ideas or a simple drawing, it creates a prompt for your mind to remember it at a later date. It's a secret and personal reminder to your creativity.. You need to collect the dots in order to connect them later on.

Fear of the white page

Just getting started on anything is a huge pressure, remind yourself that this is a starting point for your ideas, if you feel like you want to develop them later, you can do. Don't let perfectionism stop you from making the first steps. This will be a book of ideas. This is a marathon, it's going to take a while and you need to not loose faith early on.

Put yourself into the work, it's 100% you and how you interpret the world around you, it's your journal. Have a look around you at what you might like to pay special attention to. You might want to note something from your day, an event, an object, a stranger on a train, a loved one wearing a stripy t-shirt, a particular pattern on a mug. Add your fashion sense into it, add your favourite patterns, add your story, what characters do you enjoy - use them!

Killers and fillers.

The goal in this book is quantity over quality, we want loads of good ideas, executed at an ok level. Like anything, good days, bad days, good pages, bad pages. I think 'killers and fillers' in my head.

Fillers are the ideas that fill the book, they don't need to be shared, they don't need to be developed. They are simply stretching the creative muscle and attention span muscle to keep that creativity ticking over.

Killers are the ideas that spark something. You might feel happy about sharing a killer, you might want to develop it later on - that's the one that sticks in your mind a little longer than the others.

You don't have to share your creative journal with anyone if you don't want to and you don't have to share it online either. It's nice to have a personal project.

Keep it practical

In terms of drawing: find a simple tool that works for you. Anything claggy might stick your pages together, things like pen and ink tend to be more of a 'sitting at a desk' tool so bear that in mind if you want to create on the go. Mechanical pencils are great, you don't need to sharpen them.

As for your book, get yourself something that you can easily throw into your bag and take with you, you never know when an idea might strike. Sketchbooks don't need to be huge A3 ring-bound things that schools and colleges insist on using.

Things I use: (some of these are affiliate links)

• Black pigment pens - usually 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5 in thickness

• An A5 or smaller sketchbook

• Mechanical pencils - different weights of graphite leads are available for them too

• I've had a trusty Pentel mechanical pencil for years

Ready to get started?

• There's even more inspiration on my Pinterest board

• I've written more about the process of being inspired in my 'Idle Time' blog post

• Is committing to a whole journal too much of a task right now? What about a creating a zine?

• Bag yourself a list of 30 creative prompts when you sign up to my Round Up Newsletter at the top of my website

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This post includes affiliate links. Whenever you buy something through one of these, I get a small commission without any extra cost to you. This helps to support my blog, thank you.

Inside My Drawing Journal

Hello and welcome to you if you've stumbled across this post or if you've seen my drawing journal at the Manchester Open exhibition that's currently on display at HOME. (2.Feb.24 - 28.April.24)

I want to share a bit more about the drawing journal with you and maybe even inspire you to start one of your own!

How I got started with it

I've tried everything from 'Inktober' to 'fill a sketchbook a month' challenges. I get about half way in and loose faith.

However, when I started this drawing journal attempt, I had some other factors to help push me along. After being unwell, I changed my priorities around what I wanted to spend my time and energy on. Anything that was just causing me distraction had to be cut out and I just focused on the really important bits. I wanted the journal to be full of positive memories and drawings that were influenced by my experiences.

Starting with little doodles to accompany a diary entry, it quickly flipped to filling the whole page with an illustration that captured what I wanted to say.

The book itself

I used an A5 sized pink Royal Talens sketchbook with different thicknesses of pigment liners - that's it. Using the same tools removes any friction of decision making, it makes things a lot easier to just start. (These are affiliate links - see below for more information)

At the end of the experiment I had a book full of memories and I could see how my drawings had developed.

Each sketchbook I use has 82 ish double pages - so that makes 164 ish drawings per book. It doesn't feel like a huge effort to fill one page per day and the reward at the end is a book full of drawings! I'm halfway through book no.3 as we speak.

Why I think this experiment worked

-The daily deadline reduces the need for each drawing to be perfect

-Sticking to the same tools reduces the friction of decision making

-Drawing something from your day mixes inspiration with something from real life memory. It's enough of a guideline to help and not too restrictive or open ended.

Your Turn

You don't need fancy materials or to be the best at what you enjoy doing. Just enjoy the process and get something small onto paper, everyday. Click here to learn how to start your creative journal and here to learn why compounding creative habits is so important.

Will Drawing for 100 Days Help To Boost My Creativity?

This post includes affiliate links. Whenever you buy something through one of these, I get a small commission without any extra cost to you. This helps to support my blog, thank you.

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