Ironically, the days I need to wear my editing hat are the days the creative muses are most active. I weigh the choices – do I do my art first or the newspaper work?
“No, do the deadline work first!” my logical, responsible mind demands.
And it’s a standoff between them with me being mentally torn. My fear is I’ll be behind with the editing if I do my artwork first. Then I make mistakes when I hurry to finish the editing on time.
I waste a lot of time trying to make decisions. The indecisiveness is time spent doing neither when I could be using that time in doing actual work, whether it’s editing or painting. The overthinking is also a drain on my energy.
In a way, it’s not about work time. There is enough time to do both (at least on Fridays and Saturdays. On Sundays, I do need to do the newspaper first.) It’s about my own thought processes and allowing myself to get stuck on a what-to-do spiral. If I wait to do the newspaper work, it’ll still be on my mind. All the while I’m painting, the editing work will be knocking at the edges of my focus and disrupting my concentration.
“Oh, look what we can do with these colors,” the muses whisper enticingly. “Let’s try this angle with the painting.”
“Come work on me,” the editing calls. “You have to get this done in time.”
Yet, those days I go in the studio first, I do feel much better. When I don’t, the muses continue knocking awhile, but eventually fade away and might not return soon. If I don’t give them attention when they are here, they’ll go give their inspiration to someone else.
The lesson: Don’t hem and haw. Don’t use up precious time in worrying about which to do. Make a decision and go with it. Choose one! Jump in! There’s time to do other later.
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