If you’re an artist and one of your chief complaints is that your day rushes by in such a way that it is hard to secure real chunks of time to paint, then you must get very clever at organizing your mind, your equipment, and your life so as to make the best use possible of small chunks of time.
Carving out those longer painting periods of course remains essential, because creating requires extensive and concentrated intervals of work. But small chunks of time can have significant value if you get in the habit of using them!
Here are two tips for using small intervals of time in productive ways.
1. Get in the habit of knowing what your current painting needs, so that you can return to it with an internal understanding that you are “turning directly to the left arm” or “working on that second rose from the right.” This will help you find the motivation to turn to your painting even though you only have a few minutes at your disposal.
2. Create some projects that lend themselves to being worked on for fifteen minutes or thirty minutes at a time. This way you’ll complete many additional works and do a nice job of building your inventory!
Learn how to effectively use the small intervals of time that come your way. Over the long haul, those quarter hours and half hours used smartly make all the difference in the world!