Being Creative When You Don't Have the Time

This week is an absolute misery for me in the creative department for one simple reason: time.  My mornings are my prime creative time -- my brain is freshest, my energy is highest, and my muse likes it when I pay attention to her before anything else in my life.  This week, however, my mornings have been a mass of doctor appointments, meetings, and car maintenance (got to love Honda's maintenance minder that tells me it's time to get my oil changed).

Now, I could do some creative work in the evenings, except that by the time I've taught elementary students for several hours, all my get-up-and-go done got-up-and-went.  Add to that the fact that two of my evenings are occupied with piano lessons, and my creative time this week is pretty close to nil.

So, what's a creative to do?

Take advantage of the time you do have -- Just because I don't have scads of time doesn't mean I haven't worked.  I eked out an hour on Monday morning and got about half a rough draft of a vocal piece thrown down.  It's not perfect, and in many places I just threw down the chords so I'd know where to start from later, but it's something.  I didn't spend that free hour bemoaning the fact I didn't have more time to work -- I just sat down and worked.

Look for "useless" time -- Even if I can't delve deeply into my creative work, I can still create.  Delving deeply is great for fleshing things out and finishing things up; the sort of time I have this week, however, is great for idea generation.  My mind can play around with ideas, lyrics, themes, melodies, harmonies, and rhythms while I'm driving, cleaning, teaching, walking, brushing my teeth, or taking a shower.  Just last night, I had an idea come to me as I was changing the cats' litter box.  I used that quiet, alone time to think through the idea several times (mainly so I wouldn't forget it) until I could get in and spend five minutes jotting it down.  I now know that I won't lose it, and even in that otherwise-occupied time, I got something useful done.

Recharge the batteries -- As I sit there of an evening, my brain having turned to mush, I can still be helping my creativity.  I spend time playing games on my Nintendo DS (lately it's been Picross 3D, which is a very addictive puzzle game), but I also do crosswords, sudoku, and even the occasional game of Mario Kart.  All of this gives me a chance to let my brain relax and have fun, because I've learned that the more relaxed my brain is, the more at ease and playful it is, the better my creative ideas and creative work will be when I do sit down to do them.


So this week, even if you're not getting the creating done you'd like to, see where you can sneak in a few minutes of work (like I've done this morning before I'm clocked in at school).  Even if you're not churning out symphonies, you can be thinking of the notes; even if you're not composing novels, you can be watching the characters.  Little bits of creativity are still creative -- enjoy them!