I couple months ago, I wrote about starting The Artist’s Way. Well…I’ve actually kept it up, for the most part. I’ve been writing at least three pages a day, and I’ve managed to make some real progress on a couple of goals - both creative and non-creative goals - as a result of this. There’s something about spending 20 minutes or so every morning just brain-dumping. I’ve been remembering to update my blog, I’ve started drafting tutorials to publish in the future, I’m catching up on photographing some of my older jewelry, and I’ve worked on some new designs despite being more crunched for time than ever, juggling being a mom, working part time, and running my own business.

I highly recommend writing morning pages, even if you don’t have time to do all the other stuff in the book. Morning pages are basically just writing whatever comes to mind. You don’t try to do quality writing with the morning pages, just get whatever’s in your head on paper. You can even throw them away if you want to, the point is just to get it all out. I use the morning pages to think about whatever happened the day before, what I’m going to do with the rest of my day, any emotional stuff I’m going through, and I jot down any major developments my son has. I plan to copy the bits about my son into a permanent journal and probably put the rest of the paper in the recycling.

Besides the morning pages, another thing I like in this book is the way it promotes treating yourself. It doesn’t have to be something expensive that you can’t afford, but the book recommends treating yourself to things that make you happy. Little indulgences, like 15 minutes for a hot bath, or $5 for a mini-splurge on yourself, can really make a difference in how you feel. I love the idea of being really nice to myself - it can be easy to forget that when I’m juggling all my responsibilities and with most of my energy right now going toward caring for my son. Remembering to take a little time for myself, and allowing myself small treats, makes it a lot easier to take care of everything else I need to get done, and it’s helping me get back into being creative - which is the whole point of doing The Artist’s Way, right?