Make Time For Your Creative Hobby -- www.OnlineOrganizing.com

You Are Here: Home - Newsletters - "Get Organized" - Article

	Make Time For Your Creative Hobby

	by Kristine Lewis

Having a creative HOBBY whether it is scrap booking, knitting, sewing or painting is not only fun, but can offer you many additional benefits. A creative outlet is a great stress reliever, a self-esteem booster and a way socialize and make friends. Making the time to pursue your creative interest, however, can be a CHALLENVE in and of itself. It’s hard to justify working on a new quilt when you have a mountain of dirty laundry, a deadline at working coming up and cupcakes to make for your child’s school party. But, if you don’t make time for your creative hobby, you will quite simply never get around to it and will never reap the benefits. Here are seven great ways to make time for your creative hobby:

PUT IT IN YOUR CALENDAR

Schedule a BLOCK of time in your week for your hobby. Write the time block in your calendar or enter it into your handheld and commit to keeping that APPOINTMENT. Treat it like an appointment with another person -- don't let anyone talk you into giving that space of time away!

HAVE A SPOT

Designate a place in your home which is DEVOTED to your projects. If can be quite a deterrent knowing you have to get out all of your supplies and then clean them up every time you want to work on your project. If space in your home is limited, perhaps you could set up a small area in the basement, a closet or a small corner of your house for your projects.

THE BUDDY SYSTEM

Make a hobby date with a friend. If you set an appointment to work on your hobbies TOGETHER, it will be harder for you to "blow-off" your creative time for that bathroom that’s begging to be cleaned -- not to mention, this is a great time to catch up with a friend.

CREATE A PROJECT PLAN

If you have a big project to do like putting together a scrapbook that details the first year of your child’s life, develop a project PLAN for yourself, just like you would for any other big project. Break the whole project into a series of small STEPS. Focus on one step at a time. Figure out your supplies. Plan your activities. And stick to your schedule.

CREATE A CRAFT AREA FOR YOUR CHILD

If you have a hard time working on your projects because your child always wants to "help", give him/her their OWN area in which to work (near you) and their own SUPPLIES to use. Encourage them to explore their own creativity and create their own beautiful projects.

HAVE A CREATIVE PARTY

Invite a group of friends over for a party in which you can all work on your projects for a block of time. Give the party a THEME (e.g. a Mexican Fiesta) and ask everyone to bring a dish to pass which goes along with the theme. Not only will you make time for your project and time to visit with your friends, you may also be INSPIRED by your friends’ creativity.

TRADE

BARTER time with a friend or neighbor. Do you have a friend who also has a creative hobby? Perhaps she could watch your kids for two hours while you work on your hobby and vice versa.

A LIFE PRIORITY

Sometimes making time for creativity takes a little creative PLANNING. The benefits you will reap from this time are certainly well worth it! Make time for creativity today!

Kristine Lewis is the founder of An Organized Life -- providing tools, information and coaching to help you live and work better today by getting organized. You my avisit her website at www.anorganized-life.com.

Would you like to reprint this article in your publication -- or distribute it to a wider audience? Click here for reprinting instructions.

Want to receive these kind of articles via e-mail each month? Sign up for a free newsletter subscription.

Click here to return to "Get Organized" -- February 2007...