What time of day is best for creating?

Many folks believe there is one "right" or "best" time for creating.  I used to be of the opinion that I had my own personal time of day that worked best for my own creating.  I've since learned differently.

What happened?  His name is Daniel, and he is, for all intents and purposes, my new boss.  He is demanding and tends to scream when he doesn't get his way.  He expects me to bring him food at the time of his choosing and, again, if I'm too slow, he screams.  In between screaming fits, he spends a lot of time drooling, playing with his toes, and sucking on his fingers. 

Yes, as a brand-new stay-at-home Dad, my four-and-a-half month old son has become my boss, and now, I'm on his schedule.  One day, I may have an hour and a half to work in the morning while he finishes his nightly sleep.  The next day he may awake at 6:00 and stay up well past my morning working time. 

I also used to be fond of large chunks of time -- a good two or three hour block for composing or writing (especially second drafts and intense edits) was just fantastic.  Now, I get to work in thirty minute chunks that occasionally can be stretched to an hour, if I can persuade him to take a double-length nap.

I used to compose in the morning, from about 8:30 through 10:30, at least on weekdays.  Sometimes on weekends, I'd spend a good six or seven hours composing.  Not now -- every day is going to be different, with different lengths and total amounts of time, and I won't know what those times will be until I'm working.

I also used to try to work only during "normal" working hours and to take evenings off.  I'm now discovering that I can compose rough drafts of pieces on my laptop in the family room of an evening.  Final formatting is a pain, but rough drafts work just fine, and I find I can follow whatever is on TV almost as well as I can as when I'm just staring at it.

So, what time is best for creating?  Is there one "perfect" time for writing or composing or painting?

As I'm very quickly discovering, the answer is, "Yes, there is a perfect time."

The perfect time to create is whenever you can.  Morning, afternoon, night.  Half hour at a time, hour, all day.  Whatever.  It's easy to get caught up on having all the conditions perfect for creating that we never actually create anything because the conditions aren't yet "right." 

Now, it's true -- some times, the words will flow more easily in the morning than the evening, or the notes and chords come together more readily in the early afternoon.  But notice the qualifiers in that sentence -- more easily, more readily.  Even at non-ideal times, I don't know of any creative who can't create -- I know of no composer who has hours of the day during which they are incapable of composing.  Some are better, but none is perfect -- in a pinch, any hour can be a good creating hour.

So, when you find yourself with a couple of moments to create, take advantage of them, no matter when they are.  Stop waiting for conditions to be perfect and just go for it.  The time will never be better.