Sometimes the simplest ideas are the most powerful and the most useful. One such simple idea is getting to your art before your “real” day (of a day job or similar responsibilities) begins. Many people already do something during this “before the day begins” time: they write in their journal, meditate, exercise, do yoga, or engage in some other wonderful mind or body activity. These are indeed wonderful: but it is also possible to “move them” to another part of the day and begin your day with your art.

If you are happy with the schedule you are keeping and with your productivity, there’s no reason to make such a change. But if you aren’t happy with your productivity and if you harbor the suspicion that your current morning routine is in part sensible but also in part an avoidance of your art-making, then this is an honorable and heroic (and maybe difficult) change to make.

If to make this change means that you have to get up earlier (and maybe go to bed earlier), well, that’s what it means. Making what may amount to a dramatic change, like getting up an hour earlier, is the sort of change that can take weeks or months to get firmly in place. Accept that reality. All new habits take time to settle in. If this idea makes sense to you, accept that it will require some devotion and some discipline. The possible payoff: making more art than you have ever made before!