I don’t know about you but I find it terribly easy to get pulled in different directions and to be pulled away from my work.
The answer to my creative problem is simple and can be found in the Cal Newport book Deep Work. The answer is to slip away and invest the time to work. To put the hours in and get the work done.
Problem is though there just aren’t enough hours in the day to fit in everything I want to fit in. Since I want to fit in 8 hours at the day job, 8 hours of creative work of my own, and the 31 hours a day of full time parenting that seem to find their way in. So since we are only given 24 hours a day and between eating, sleeping, and other necessitates we really only have 12 hours. So what gives. What can I drop and do poorly?
I’ve been a single parent since my children were 2 & 5. They’ve lived with me full time and I’m now looking at the “empty nest” in my future and considering what that new stage in my life will be like. My boys are now 17 & 20. I’ve watched the space for me and my creative work shift over the years. Mostly as the needs of my children has evolved over the years.
Looking back I can say with certainty that I had much more time when they were younger. Mostly due to the easily enforced bedtime. I was able to put them down at 8pm, clean the house until 9pm, and then have from 9pm until midnight (sometimes 2:00 am) to work and practice. In that time I earned a masters and an EdD, wrote a great deal, and edited too much video to count.
But these days I struggle to find any time for myself or to practice my craft to put in the hours and to make progress creatively I know what the answer is. Just to put the work first and to get away long enough to get the hours in. But I can’t the boys take up so much more time than they did at 2 & 5.
But why? Why after 15 years do my boys take up more time than they did as infants?
That is easy. This is likely my last year with my oldest home with me. He has big plans. Well he has modest and realistic plans that involve a few months at a job training program post-covid and a manufacturing job that he hopes will dovetail into his own creative dreams. (His thought is to get a job welding so that he can build skills that he can apply to a type of sculpture he’s interested in).
And while I have a few more years with my youngest those days are numbered as well. It won’t be long before he is starting his own life as well.
These are the days to soak up what I can. And while I’m not able to get in as many hours work wise as I’d like. That’s simply because I’ve set my priorities differently. There is always some time to do some work. And as the seasons of life move on the space for things change. So savor the time you have with the times that are fleeting.