The Official SCBWI Blog: Creating while Caregiving: Making Time to Make Art

Creating while Caregiving with Romy Natalia Goldberg- Making time to Make Art

Hola, hello, howdy!

Since this week's Creating While Caregiving post is about time management, I will keep my intro brief. Whether you are caring for a kid, pet, spouse or are in any other number of visible and invisible caregiving situations, chances are, your “free” time is limited. Learning to find, defend and maximize time for creative pursuits is a never-ending and ever-changing process. Having a few different techniques in your back pocket can help you keep creating even when you can't touch a pencil or keyboard.

In preparation for this piece I interviewed three of my time-management role models, Jasminne Mendez, Molly Blaisdell and Elle H. Simone. I have watched each create consistently throughout various challenges life and the industry have presented. Hopefully their advice is as helpful to you as it has been to me.

Author and artist Molly Blaisdell recommends a short task list and lots of rewards!

The One or Two List

Like a timed sprint, this method, recommended by Molly, employs a limited scope to encourage success. Instead of time, a “One or Two” list limits your to-do list to, you guessed it, just one or two tasks. Make sure both are bite-sized tasks. Think, “write 300 words,” not, “finish manuscript.” When you accomplish a task, celebrate by rewarding yourself. Choose a reward that is emotionally satisfying like listening to a favorite song or catching up with a friend. You may find your reward is energizing enough to want to work on another list!

Rewards are very important! Rewards do double-duty, serving as self care and positive reinforcement (bribery). Or as Molly puts it, “Always reward your lizard brain; it is stupid and likes prizes.” Rewards stack the deck in favor of a consistent and sustainable practice.

Going Full “Method”

Even with small task lists and rewards, the brain is lazy and inertia is real. Steer (ok, trick) yourself into engaging consistently in some part of the creative process. Bury the impostor syndrome and fully commit to being a creative person.

Jasminne says:

“I see almost any task as contributing to my writing practice. I can brainstorm ideas and work out plot points while in the school pick up line or while washing dishes. I come up with one-liners and story ideas while in bed dealing with insomnia or a pain flare and even if I can’t write it all down at that moment I will dictate a note on my phone and come back to it later.”

Admittedly, children' s book inspiration is easier to come by when your caregiving involves children. Nap and story times present chances to work through a TBR and volunteering at book fairs is a great way to build relationships with school librarians. If your caregiving involves adults, do what you can to match their needs to your creative pursuits. Use time with patients to learn about their hobbies or past grudges (promise to turn old exes into villains). Ask your great uncle for painting tips!

"There are no secrets. You make it a priority and you do it. "

Boundaries

If you are a caregiver, you may be conditioned to put others' needs before your own. While I focused previously on the importance of building community, it is important to ensure your own needs are met in the process. This can look as simple as setting your phone to Do Not Disturb when writing and limiting social media usage (or delegating management of your account to a friend if necessary). Established artists may find it valuable to create stock answers for common requests like publishing advice. Setting boundaries can be awkward and uncomfortable but it gets easier when you commit to leading a creative life no matter.

Everything from birthday cakes to texting my great uncle can be a creative prompt

Getting Real about Your Time:

During our first meeting as randomly paired critique partners, Elle, then the ARA for SCBWI North Texas, mentioned having met her monthly writing goal. Meanwhile, I was operating under the soul-crushing assumption that I should be writing all the time. Over the course of the next few years, Elle helped me understand that a structured approach to my time could unlock my creativity rather than suffocate it.

According to Elle, there are two extremes for managing your creative time. On one end, creativity gets very little priority, resulting in more daydreaming about writing “some day” than actual writing sessions. On the other end of the spectrum, creativity is prioritized to the detriment of everyday routines. I am guilty of this, blissfully immersing myself in creative projects only to emerge to a nightmarish mountain of untackled tasks and postponed plans.

Elle recommends: "Take extreme ownership of your time. Offensively plan for life's surprises and overestimate how long things will take

Being realistic about how much time I truly have for my creative pursuits has involved taking into account that not all “free” time is created equally. Elle has helped me learn to categorize my “free” into a few categories:

Flex time:

Her suggestion to “offensively plan for life’s surprises” helps keep creative plans from getting completely derailed by the inevitable illness, schedule mix-ups or emergency.

Self-care:

Ensure your self-care time is truly restorative. While the reality of caregiving means you will often have to be flexible, your self-care should be non-negotiable. Do not allow your flex time to seep into your self-care time!

Admin time:

While most artists would prefer to create all day, engaging in commerce at any level, makes you a contract worker and/or small-business owner, both of which mean admin work. While it feels like a pain, remembering to block out routine time for administrative tasks frees up mental energy and time for creativity.

Creative time:

All this realism can feel a little depressing once you discover how little creative time is available. However, the opposite can be true. I can honestly say that I am now more motivated to make the absolute most of the time I do have. And liberating myself from the damaging idea that I should be writing “all the time” has helped the ideas flow more freely and allowed me to enjoy my family time without being bitter about not writing.

More about my time management role models:

Jasminne Mendez

Multi-genre author and poet Jasminne Mendez is open online about her struggles with a chronic disease and juggling parenting, writing and teaching. I first encountered her via the #5amwritersclub hashtag, used by writers to indicate they are sprinting at 5am. Bearing bleary-eyed witness to Jasminne’s persistence encouraged me to get my words in, even if it was many hours later.

Molly Blaisdell / Cece Barlow

A production editor for the International Ocean Discovery Program, author of over 60 books, and neurodivergent mother of four neurodivergent children, Molly has created through every caregiving situation imaginable. When her life gets too chaotic, she will even start dictating manuscripts out loud in her sleep! She truly models incorporating creativity into her daily life, from sharing her experience at local meetings to creating a summer publishing programming for teens.

Elle H. Simone

In addition to being the master of time management, Elle has always been my go-to comp title queen and one of the most insightful picture book critiquers around. Watching Elle hit her goals over and over has helped me learn the value of harnessing my creative chaos. I may never find joy in structure but I’m thankful to Elle for helping me learn how to defend my creative time.

UP NEXT!

I hope the advice in this post proves helpful to you! Are there time management techniques that have worked to keep you creating despite caregiving pressures? I’d love to hear about them!

For the final installment of this series I will be discussing lesser represented and invisible caregiving situations and I welcome your comments either here or via my website.