Creating a Routine

Since being out of work for the last week or so I’m trying to get into a new daily routine.

I’m trying to put into action the things that I have had in my head. Like, when I was at work, I would think, ‘This or this is what I would be doing if I didn’t have a job’ and so now that I don’t have a job I am trying to actually do those things I was thinking about when I did have a job.

The basics of my wake-up-morning routine has stayed the same. It’s the work-from-home, the creative routine, that I’m trying to discover.

I’m trying to get into a routine that works for me and who I am creatively. Where are my peak times? When do I have the most energy? When do I have the least amount of energy? When do I feel hungry? How long should I give myself for a lunch break? How can I balance the things that need to be done vs the things that I want to do? Such as, looking for a day job vs making journals and posting them on Etsy vs family responsibilities vs making soap and keeping up with my small business duties, etc. It’s more work than you think it is. Out of a job? Yes. Bored? Nope. Not me.

Last week, early on Monday morning, I turned my key in at my former workplace then came home and made soap. I worked really, really hard last week on all the things I’ve had in my head to do. What’s next on the list? Let’s do it. No more thinking about it. If I said I didn’t have time to do these things before, well, guess what, I have time now. No excuses. ‘Not having time’ is no longer an excuse.

I’ve been giving myself daily tasks; all the things I said I couldn’t do when I had a job; I am making sure I do those things, such as posting on social media once a day in order to market myself (Don’t laugh. If you’re a creative person or maker, you know this can sometimes be difficult). Giving myself time limits for these tasks has been huge for me this past week or so. Even putting a timer on; giving myself 15 minutes, half hour, an hour and a half, two hours has been so, so, so helpful in keeping me on task and balancing the things I need to do. This is part of me finding a new creative, work-at-home routine and I am trying to be stringent about this, but not so rigid that there’s no flexibility.

I am a routine person. My husband and I are routine people. We are very time-oriented with our routines too. Although we are routine people, we have to shift with the seasons of life because life ebbs and flows and we have to be flexible even in the midst of routine.

I’m on the newsletter email list from Book Art Studios; a book bindery based in New Zealand. A lady named Liz is the owner of the company and in her most recent e-mail she sent a few tips on ‘what dto do if your art is costing you’. One of those tips was, “Create a routine (then you’ll know if you have time for extra activities)”.

In my new, without-a-job situation this really stood out to me. I am working; it’s just not a job job. I need to create a routine, so I can keep sacred my creative space and not have it trampled by this person or that person who wants me to do this or that (With or without pay). Extracurricular activities, if you will, has to be more specific and not just, ‘Oh, I’m free whenever’.

Six years ago I left my job as a receptionist at a massage studio. This was on purpose and more planned than the situation I find myself in now. However, in a way I was in this same place I was at now: wanting to explore how working for myself on creative endeavors would lead me down a path or entrprenurship or perhaps a career.

Except this time things feel very different.

This time, leaving my day job, yes, was on purpose, but it was an entirely different situation and reason for leaving and I didn’t plan it.

Not just because my reasons for leaving were not the same as six years ago, but also…just in general this time being without a job feels different because I actually have things to DO.

Six years ago, my body care business was just getting off the ground. I wasn’t blogging back then. I wasn’t even really writing. I was just starting to find a process of making handbound journals.

Now, six years later, I’ve grown and developed all of this slowly. Not fast, but slowly. Things have come out of the woodwork as far as my creative talents go and I’ve been trying to walk in them more.

Things do develop slowly. It’s the one thing at a time. It’s the showing up on a day-by-day basis. It’s the creating a daily routine and then sticking to that routine type of work that leads to growth, development and change.

If setting a creative work routine is part of me walking in the gifts and calling that God has put on me life, then that’s what I need to do.

I hope you too, friend, can make space in your life for the things that God has laid on your heart, and if that is creating a routine, well then, I hope you find it.