I’m feeling creatively frustrated at the moment.
Because it’s summer holidays for school, it means I’m working shorter weeks so I can spend time with my 7 year old daughter.
Which is lovely (when she’s not being bossy!), but it does mean my usual routine goes out of the window.
It means that I don’t get time to go for a walk and write, like I do most Fridays. And I’m squeezing all my work activities into fewer days, so I also don’t get the time to think and to develop new things.
So how do I handle that?
Not very well at the moment, as I’m feeling frustrated! Hence I decided to use a spare 15 minutes to write a blog post about it and see what thoughts I could come up with.
As you can see, what I mean by creativity is my walks where I take photos, my blog writing, and any development of new services, workshops etc.
Creativity to you might be similar, or it might look more like a painting class or an afternoon of drawing. But whatever it is, if you’re someone who needs to be creative, you still need it even if it’s the summer holidays.
So what could I do?
Have a break
Well the first thing is to give myself a break. Literally. A holiday, a break from social media and emails, time away physically and mentally. To switch off from my thoughts and everyone else’s thoughts. I did that, and it was lovely!
Capture the ideas
And inevitably after a while new ideas emerge. Because my brain doesn’t stop thinking for long! So first I write the ideas down in my usual place – OneNote – so I don’t lose them. That’s the important step, to capture them somewhere.
Keep some time for creativity
Because I know my own process, I know that I won’t write or think very well on a day when I have lots of calls. So I try as far as possible to leave one day clear of calls.
I also take advantage of any time I get when it’s quiet. Days when my husband is in the office and my daughter is at a holiday club. Even spare 15 minutes like this one, if my brain is feeling calm and creative.
Of course I appreciate that I’m lucky to have those holiday club days. And to be able to cut down my client work over the long holidays. If you don’t have that, perhaps your creative moments could be 15 minutes of doodling, or 15 minutes writing or drawing something while you’re cooking dinner?
Trust the ideas
I also have to trust that my ideas will have their time if they are meant to be.
Some of them will stay in OneNote or a notebook never to be seen again. Some of them will be desperate to get out into the world, so they’ll remind me they exist time and time again until I do something with them. Ideas are a bit like that. (Elizabeth Gilbert writes about this in more detail in her book Big Magic (affiliate link)).
And remember the cyclic nature of life
Finally, I just have to remember that life is cyclic – nature has its cycles, seasons, moon phases etc, and as a woman I do notice a few distinct phases in my energy and creativity throughout each month.
So the ability to have ideas will come back, and sometimes I will build on a previous idea, sometimes it’ll be a totally new one. Even if I can’t jump on the ideas now, I’ll be able to do so next time they come around.
In conclusion
It’s OK if I have to slow down over the summer. Ideas will come and go, and because I have systems and places to put them, I can still use them. And because I know I need creative time, I’ll make space for it, even if it’s 15 minutes rather than 2 hours.
How about you? How are you managing to fit in a bit of creativity over the summer holidays?
If you need help sorting through your ideas, working out how to capture them, or figuring out how to make them happen, do get in touch to see how I can help.
