Apparently, the best time to be creative is immediately after waking. The best time to edit and proof your efforts comes later in the day, after your brain has let all those creative juices flow and is warmed up, so to speak. Or so science says.
My brain hasn’t gotten the memo. I’m not one of those people who have inspiration hit in the shower, nor does it spark with the first bits of toast. My mind has already started making a list of every single thing I need to get done that day. And every item on that list is seemingly more important than making time for my creative process to emerge. To combat that I make sure I get up early enough to read a couple of pages in a book or of the paper while I wait for my tea to steep. I have breakfast, get dressed, and settle into my office chair. Then I look to inspiration to strike. As I’m usually checking Facebook or Instagram, this rarely happens immediately.
But I’m trying to spend less time on social media and more time fostering creativity. Doodling is one of my favourite things. And watercolours are my new favourite medium despite having a lot to learn. Doodling and playing with colour helps settle my mind. Then I generally take care of marketing and promotion duties. I write for an hour. Then I write again in the afternoon. So, the opposite of what science suggests.
Maybe on of these days I’ll actually get around to listening to Robin Sharma’s The 5 AM Club: Own Your Morning, Elevate Your Life that is waiting patiently in my Audible to-be-read pile. But that day is not today.
Until the next time…
When do you fit in time to be creative? Or to read? Or do something that settles your mind or feeds your soul?
I wish I could be a member of the 5 am club. I’m more of a 9 or 10 am club member. I am often awake at 5 am because my geriatric dog lets me know she has business to do outside. But rather than stay up and start writing, my semi awake body demands to go back to bed. I have in the past managed to get up around 6 am to write; I wrote a novella in record time this way a few years ago. It was a great feeling to know that most days I’d already met my writing goal by 9 am. Perhaps someday my muse will decide she’s an early riser and refuse to let me go back to bed!
Those muses can be tricky beings! It’s interesting, though, that you had some success in the past with getting up early and sitting down straight away to write. Getting up early isn’t my problem, it’s getting anything done! I may have to try it as I’m inspired by your earlier success and because I need to get some words down on the page!!!