About a month ago, I watched a short video by Marie Forleo where a woman asked how she could find time to write a book on top of a demanding career. Her efforts to work on it at night did not produce results. She didn’t have the creative energy at the end of the day.
Sound familiar?
Marie told her to start working on her book first thing in the morning, before her career took over her day.
This is not a new idea. I have dismissed it in the past for various reasons, but decided to give it a try now. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Getting up 15 minutes earlier felt daunting, so I got up five minutes earlier and quit hitting the snooze on my alarm instead.
I’m about a month in now. I get more done than I did before but not as much as I hoped. Rather than do all sewing, I decided to have four categories to help me catch up on multiple tasks I never get to. I do not have a fixed rotation, but try to keep the categories relatively even. I was hoping to catch up in one category enough that I could collapse it into another, but it hasn’t happened yet.
The first two weeks brought a lot more energy to my mornings. Now that the honeymoon period is over, the energy burst has faded but the benefits remain. I am more conscious of how I spend my time and when I’m squandering it. That alone is worth the price of admission.
This experiment is a work in progress. Everything is subject to change, including the categories and the time span. I also shifted my schedule at work, the result of closings on every major road between my house and the office. My commute turned into a marathon. It was lot of change to my routine at once.
I’m not sure where this experiment is headed but will continue to share my experiences. You never know what will benefit someone else.
quiltpaintcreate 
Oh! Good plan! I started doing something similar several years ago. The hair cut I had required 20 minutes of air drying so I used that 20 minutes to cut up all of my scraps into usable sizes. Three big stuffed bins of them. Took me 18 months but that’s the only time I cut them up. I pressed a big stack of scraps for the week on Sundays though. Once that was complete I was itching for something else to fill that void. Ever since I make sure I have one mindless piecing project going, in addition to my current leader ender project and worked on that for the 20 minutes. Some weeks it was the only time I spent in my sewing room. But, it made me so much more aware of what WA in there that Imwas able to purge and organize things better as well as spark some useful ideas for quilts moving forward. It really worked well for me. I got away from it after we moved though. Not the same set up and triggers as well as having more time in the sewing room since retirement. In theory anyway! LOL!
It definitely makes me more aware of how I spend my time. I’ve now switched to sewing every other morning and spending less time on the other categories, at least in the morning. I sometimes work on those other things at night. I don’t see a big difference in my sewing output yet, but I’m hoping to notice a change over time. It’s hard to evaluate during the holidays because I don’t live my regular schedule a lot of the time.
This sounds like a great plan for you! I am sure you will tweak it as you work it and it works for you! I am always happier when I come up with a game plan for myself! đŸ™‚
I am still modifying it. 15 minutes is better than nothing, but not really enough.
When I was hand quilting my son’s freedom quilt, I was a full-time teacher plus taught continuing ed to district staff. I was getting nowhere on the quilt! I made the sacrifice to get up 15 min earlier and go straight to the quilt frame. I quilted for exactly 15-min and then went about my normal routine. The quilt was quilted in an amazingly short time because I devoted the *entire* 15 minutes to that alone, not even having a moment in the kitchen, just straight to the frame. I was astonished! Then I went back to sleeping an extra 15 min a day. LOL
It does help. I spend more time on the weekends and days off than 15 minutes. I’m still working out how to get to the “other things” while taking them out of the rotation so I can spend more time in the sewing room.