Making Time For The Things You Love

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Making time for the things we love is difficult.

In this crazy, hectic society we live in, too often I find myself replying ‘busy’ to ‘how are you?’ questions from friends and acquaintances. I’m not lying; I am busy, and while it’s mostly good busy (it’s social busy, it’s enjoyable work busy, it’s travel busy), busy is busy.

These days I’m ‘running out of time’ to do the things that I really want to do. There are projects I want to start, craft ideas that keep piling up, threatening to topple over at any moment (figuratively and literally). Most recently, there are paintings in the forefront of mind that I know won’t leave until I have a brush in one hand and a paint palette in the other (colour choices which I am still sceptical about but will use anyway and see how it goes).

It’s hard to find the time to do the things you love. But it’s totally doable.

Finding time

We all have the same amount of time every day, but finding a slot of that time can be the main challenge. I know that I have at least an hour every night before I go to bed (unless I’ve been out ridiculously late) that I can use for one of my favourite hobbies: reading. At lunch time I know I have 30-minutes to eat and do something – this is the perfect time to get in a few chapters, or practise hand lettering.

You don’t have to look too far to find those spare minutes in your day. Have a 30-minute commute? That’s half an hour you could spend doing something that you enjoy – reading, listening to podcasts, sketching, planing your next holiday. Just a little creative thinking around the ticking clock can have you doing the things you love to do in amongst the must-dos of the day.

Making time

There’s a real difference, I think, in finding time and making time. Finding time is what I’ve just described: knowing you have a break at this time of the day that could be filled with something you enjoy. Making time, however, is specifically setting aside the minutes/hours to activity pursue something, allocating time on a regular basis. It doesn’t have to be every day, or even every week, but a time slot that you will block out as an event in your calendar, a time that can’t be changed by social plans, work you didn’t finished, or chores you should have done the day before.

Perhaps every Saturday morning you’ll take yourself down the local cafe to continue writing your book. Maybe every evening before you hit the switch you’ll journal for 10 minutes. Make Thursday nights movie night with your friends or loved one to catch the latest blockbuster. Every first Sunday of the month take a drive into the countryside and see where you end up.

Finding time in the 24 hours you’ve been given each day is important, but making time is even more so.

Spending time

How you spend that made time is the fun part, and will probably look different each day/week/month.

Recently I’ve joined a fortnightly art group, and while we have just started meeting, I am so looking forward to setting that time aside every second Tuesday to get out my paint brushes. The first week I had another project I was working on, so I spent the 2 hours cutting out images for a youth event that I had coming up. But the next time we meet, I’ll be doing something different. Perhaps I’ll start one of those paintings which is stuck in my head, or write out a couple of pages in pretty lettering.

Getting out of the house, and purposefully going to a different place to work on my painting will actually make me get stuck into the projects I’ve been wanting to do for ages now. The other good thing about working with a group like this is that if I’m not there one week, then I had better have a jolly good excuse for not being there. By spending the time we’ve set aside together, we’ll keep each other accountable.

Whether you love reading, hiking in the hills, travelling, painting, photography, playing the guitar, or sorting your stamp collection, finding time, making time, and spending that time wisely will make all the difference to your creative streak, your skills in that area, and also your sanity. Purposefully begin making time for the things you love.

What do you think? How do you make time for your hobbies and passions? Have any tips for the rest of us?