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Stephen Harnwell Jones's avatar

Oh Abby. I hear you. My fun time generally involves selfishly going for a walk to get coffee in the morning, and tying sketch time to that - 30 or 45 minutes daily sitting doing nothing but watch the world go by, sipping and doodling. I kinda build natural creative time into something I’m addicted to doing religiously.

I say selfish, but really, I’ve found if I don’t do it daily, I never get anything down to paper at all. Ironically, I’m currently moving house and it’s a sort of compressed version of what you’ve described - get the unpacking sorted first, then return to the fun stuff once the jobs are done. And the result is I’ve totally dropped the ball on my illustration work in the past 4 or 5 weeks. Or more. Not a single post, not a single trip to a cafe, not a single mark in a sketchbook. If the truth be told it feels like a bit of a holiday for me - permission to take a rest from the stuff I love to do. Which just seems ridiculous. What have I become?!

Anyway, you are not alone in this battle Abby. I think how you’re feeling is actually the way it’s meant to feel. God that makes it sound so depressing doesn’t it!

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Nanette Regan's avatar

Oh wow, I identify with ALL of this!! Half an hour to answer an email? Yup!

Doing all the boring things first before I’m “allowed” to do anything I might enjoy? Yes indeed!

You are so right that it’s all about the energy, it’s easy to run out of it and struggle to refuel. But when the energy is flowing it feels brilliant, easy and FUN!

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