Tag: 125 Hours

125 Hours?

Two weeks back, I issued a challenge to myself……spend 125 hours in a creative pursuit during the month of August….

As I write this, it is the 13th of August, which means that I should have 52 hours of creative time.

HOW HAVE I DONE??

First of all, I have really had to push myself to accomplish an average of 4 hours per day. One day I did 10 hours and the next two I didn’t do any!!!

The first day of August was a trip to Atlanta with my friend Linda. We both had gift certificates that were burning a hole in our pockets so we needed to SHOP!!! I came away with a nice haul of bits and pieces for my machine and my fabric and thread stash…..

And yes, this counted as “creative time”.

I spent 16.5 hours working on Sadie, and another 11.5 hours writing blog posts, editing videos, and getting all of the information about Sadie onto my blog.

I spent 1.5 hours at my guild meeting, talking with other quilters and enjoying an amazing show and tell!!

I spent 3 hours doing administrative work for “Frances Quilts”.

I have spent 11 hours working on a baby quilt.

There have been various other bits and pieces along the way…..a small amount of hand applique, a few minutes doing one of the exercises in this book…..

I had thought that I would do one of these every day in August but THAT did NOT happen!!

SO……

One last thing…..

This challenge is definitely helping me to avoid a lot of procrastination. I am even cutting my lunchtime relaxation a bit short so that I can get into my studio. And honestly, for me, studio time is more relaxing than a nap!!

AND it is so much fun to think about what I can work on in the NEXT 72 hours!!!

Ya’ll keep me honest…..OKAY?

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125 or BUST

If you are new to this blog here is some context before you read this……

I am a self-employed CPA and I work from home. This gives me a lot of flexibility with my time but I find it easy to procrastinate my time away…..

NOW TO THE STORY……

Over the last seven months, I have complained both online and in person about not having time to be creative. Most of this was my own fault by taking on too many tasks, and saying yes, when I should’ve said no

When we got back from our trip in late June, I had lots of accounting work that needed to be caught up on. Once again, I complained bitterly

Then, about the 10th of July, I made a deal with myself…….

I would work my butt off to get all of my accounting work done by the end of the month!!

Now that doesn’t mean that I won’t have more work as time goes along, but I wanted to be completely caught up with the urgent things, and with the things that were in my “too-hard” basket.

As I write this email, it is July 31st and I am finishing up the last of my accounting duties so I DID meet my side of the deal!!

So what’s gonna happen tomorrow… when August begins?

I decided to set myself a big goal.

I want to spend 125 hours being creative in the month of August… That’s four hours every…..single…day!!

Is this goal doable?

I don’t know, but I want to push myself and see what I can accomplish.

Now, how am I going to keep track of my goal to see if I get 125 hours?

I started to get onto my computer and build a spreadsheet to keep track of my time but finally decided to KISS…..

….and use the diary that I already have.

My plan is to highlight the hours that I spend each day so that I will have a visual representation of what I have accomplished…..something like this……

This creative work will not just be quilting. It may be planning, reading creative books, working on my Frances Quilts business plan, painting, learning Procreate and anything else that tests my brain in a creative manner.

I am going to boldly put this blog post out.

I honestly don’t know if I can attain it, but I’m sure going to try

I plan to give updates along the way.

IF you want to join me, set a goal for yourself, and let’s get started.

Wish me luck!

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