This year is the first of many where both my daughters are in school five days a week. I have been looking forward to the increased studio time for a while now however, my reaction took me by surprise. Instead of jumping straight in with both feet (er, hands) and painting all day I immediately went into a sort of melancholic brain fog. Recognising that this had a lot to do with the shock of having 5 days a week in which to do what I please, I decided to at least attempt to come up with a schedule for myself.
If you know anything about temperaments you will know that the melancholic is naturally an introvert and is prone to ruminating in their head. They are also usually perfectionists which is sometimes a burden I find. I tend to ruminate a lot, probably too much and so I am making attempts to turn that habit into a positive thing.
Another natural tendency for the melancholic is to come up with routines and timetables. If you talk to my parents you will discover that this was me all throughout school. Timetables for my timetables they would say! Having kids did change this a bit. Routine became important but so did learning how to go with the flow of interruption and unexpected events. Flexibility really.
Now that the routine of the week revolves around school hours and I do have more time during the day to be in a routine of sorts, I have had to try to remember what that’s like. I think I probably went a lot further with my flexibility that I thought. For some that’s a great thing, they can function really well in what looks like chaos but is in fact order.
Now I need to find that balance between the two, enough routine in the day that the hours are not wasted and enough freedom and flexibility that I can be creative and loosen up my painting hand a bit (and be available to go to school sports days or drop what I’m doing if one of the kids is sick etc…).
If you want to find out a bit more about temperaments there is a lot online that is very helpful. Being a melancholic by the way does not mean that I’m always sad, moody or down, it just means that I am likely to be sensitive to things and feel loneliness strongly. A routine of sorts really helps with keeping that under control.
Here are a couple of great posts that help with motivation and routine:
12-tips-to-get-motivated-creating by Alicia Tormey
Hopefully I can really get moving with a routine that allows me to be creative and move forward in this journey.
Amanda.