Competing Interests

Reflections on balancing a hectic life and still finding the time and motivation for creative pursuits.

Some weeks seem longer than others. This week, that’s been especially true. Work has been busy. Our daughter, who is just about to turn three, is in the midst of a massive sleep regression. And we’ve been dealing with a lot of other craziness. All of the “life stuff” has made it difficult to write, be creative, and find motivation.

This comes after I had just decided on a new daily schedule. Gym at 6:30 (or at least try); work by 9; home for dinner; put daughter down for bed at 7:30; write from 7:30 to 8:30; go to sleep at 9. The writing time being the key. Only that schedule got tossed out the window on Monday and hasn’t been seen all week. I’m sitting at the gym now, on a Thursday night and am thinking about how little writing I’ve done since I finished The Hike over the weekend.

So this has me reflecting on how to manage competing interest in life. Specifically, how to find the motivation to be creative when I’m tired, life has taken over, and I want to do anything other than write. And if I somehow do find the motivation, then how to transform that motivation into productivity using the nooks and crannies of life.

Photo by Jack Anstey on Unsplash

On finding motivation, I think it’s much like learning how to navigate a difficult road, even if I don’t quite know where I’m headed. I need a good map and when things go wrong, I need a back-up plan.

In that vein, I believe it’s critical to schedule time to pursue creative work, whether it’s blocks of time for focused productivity, or set times to share the creative work. I have an hour that’s theoretically set aside, but more often than not it doesn’t work, so I have a backstop by setting a time to share what I’ve been working on. For instance, I’ve found the motivation to write now, and the primary motivating factor is that I’ve committed to writing at least once a week and publishing it on Friday. If not for that schedule, I likely would not be writing this week at all.

Also, I have to find motivation wherever I can. This week, motivation came somewhat unexpectedly. I got into my first art show (more details to come). I’ve been wanting to dip a toe in the water on art shows for awhile, and a good, low stakes, opportunity presented itself. Receiving the acceptance made me happy, filled my cup, and has given me added motivation to get out to take more photographs. I have plans for the weekend, though we’ll see what happens.

Third, I try to keep my “why” top of mind. For me, being creative and writing makes me happy. When I recognize and internalize that reality, it helps me prioritize the work when I might not otherwise.

Once I find the motivation, then I have to find the time. When I get weeks like this, time can be hard to come by and finding it can involve a lot of trade-offs. This week, one key trade-off has been to fit in only a baseline amount of exercise and no more, so that I can otherwise focus on the craziness. And I’ve done that at the expense of materially advancing one or more of the many on-going writing projects that I have.

It’s also meant that I’m putting this together last minute, at the gym and a pub, while we have a babysitter. And that’s fine, because creativity feeds on momentum. Writing this here and now keeps up my momentum. And the more I write and build that momentum, then the more that will carry through when the time, or the ideas, or the words don’t come as easily. I have momentum now, in that I’ve been writing steadily for nearly two months, and that is a significant mental boost.

I am hopeful that next week won’t be quite so crazy. Maybe I’ll have plenty of time to write in the evenings, or maybe not. If I don’t, then that’s fine because just like this week, I’ll keep the momentum going however I can.

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As always, thank you for reading. Please send me a note or leave a comment with any reactions, and I hope everyone has a good weekend.