Schedule > Guts

What’s up? Been awhile since I last posted got busy with some other projects but I’m back (at least for this week) and wanted to make note of something I’ve learned in my years of trying to learn things. I’m not sure it’s a problem with everyone(or maybe you don’t think its a problem but it really is, hopefully I can help with that too!) but not having a schedule puts my anxiety levels up a few ticks. If your like me you’ll say to yourself “Man I really like (Insert artistic pursuit) I guess I just need to practice.” Now its great to want to pursue something but  if I don’t have a schedule to incorporate the excess stress of when I’m going to do it makes it a whole lot less enjoyable.

Let me use drawing as an example. I’ve tried to pick up drawing as a skill about three times in my teenage/adult life.  Between a mix of lack of self confidence and just bulldozing into things with out a plan I ended up stressed, convinced it was impossible, and quitting. Granted a schedule wasn’t the end all be all of me starting to learn drawing but man alive it’s helped. I wake up, eat, practice drawing. That’s how my regular workday morning goes. I (by and large) don’t push it off for later because I draw in the morning and if I draw in the morning I don’t have to stress about when I’ll draw. And as time goes on it’s become a part of my daily life.

Let’s look at an example of when I didn’t have a schedule. I’ve been on and off writing for the past four odd years so you’d think I’d no pretty well how to get stuff done…well come my first job I found out I didn’t. I’d go to work come home, wonder when I was going to write attempt writing latter in the day and generally stress myself out and well it just wasn’t as good as the system I have now. I eat, draw, got to work, go to the library, write about two pages, and go home. This may sound super simple but its a godsend for me but even then its not easy and normally I have to pass through a blanket of anxiety before I get to the meat of the writing but its better than not writing so I stick with it.

But all this is just me saying if you want to acquire an artistic skill or another skill take the time out of your day to sit down look at your  life and figure out when you have time to work on your skill and keep at it. I know this is advice just about anyone can give but for me its not so much good advice as a reality that works a lot better than you realize.