October 2003 Contents               
I. Feature Article: Composing the Time of Your Life
II. Friends in Print: When you feel like reading
III. Energy Management: Translations from the Psych Research Lab, the Board Room, and the Shrink’s Couch
IV. Creative Links: Sites for visual artists
V. Newsletter Info: Sharing this newsletter, subscribing, and unsubscribing

I. Feature Article: Composing the Time of your Life
     Have you ever had an idea for a piece that was immediately shelved by a convincing inner voice, “There’s just no time!”? Have you learned some of the standard time management techniques but found that those organizers and to-do lists have actually led to over-scheduling and increased time pressures?
     As an art-maker, you can use your skills in visual balance and composition to move toward finding your own rhythm. Rhythm is an inner thing. We all have our own repertoires of tempos and can recognize times and places that have their own distinctive “beat”. You may notice especially when the outside beat is out of sync with yours or when it powerfully shifts the atmosphere. Just think of the special pace of the wedding march or the regal waltz that underlies a bagpipe’s Amazing Grace.
     Here’s an approach to increasing sensitivity to your own rhythms and those around you, including nature:
    1.      If you already use a calendar, pull out the time frame that you wish to compose into a new tempo. For many, it’s the month on a page; it could be the span of a week. (If you don’t already use a calendar, choose your own size paper and art materials and set up the time frame you wish in a layout that makes sense to you.)
    2.      Either draw your calendar or Xerox the calendar page you actually use. You may wish to make multiple copies for experimenting.
    3.      Using at least 3 colors, sketch in the kind of energy you’d like to experience over the course of that time frame. This is an ideal composition. If you are into music, you might consider it a score. Abstract or representational marks work. Examples I know of: a pink bubble symbol for naps; stick figures in motion to denote breaks for moving the body; little, tight black boxes for necessary paperwork.         
    4.      Now you can visually incorporate any time management tools you know using symbols. Some to consider are:
 - best times of the day, week, or month for the different types of    energy your craft and art requires
 - breaks to recharge your batteries
 - time for unpredicted crises
 - predictable interruptions
    5.      Post this image where you can see it while you work. As you live into the time frame, make note of the barriers to the ideal as they arise so you can work on them.
    This is no quick fix for finding time that wasn’t there before. It is a way to use your artist’s tools to highlight different experiences of time in color, tone, and shape.
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If you’re interested in learning more about having the time of your life, check the website under GROUPS for a coaching group that begins in January 2004: Clear the Decks: Making Time for Making Art.

II. Friends in Print: When you feel like reading

Rechtschaffen, Stephan. Timeshifting: A revolutionary new approach to creating time in your life. 1997. This author’s take on time is a good introduction to experiencing time subjectively rather than objectively. Imagine the difference between a 30-minute boring lecture and 30-minutes of stolen time to finish a great novel. All minutes are not alike from the subjective side and he’s a good teacher of this.

Helgesen, Sally. Thriving in 24/7: Six Strategies for Taming the New World of Work. 2001. A helpful analysis of our hi tech communications and how they’ve shifted our sense of time and leisure across our lives, not just in work. She makes not-quite-obvious connections, for example, between email and stress, that had me saying, “Aha, of course!”. She proposes practical small changes for navigating life more smoothly.
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III. Energy Management: Translations from the Psych Research Lab, the Board Room and the Shrink’s Couch
The Forest and the Trees
As I work with various artists, it is clear that they have many styles of creating and processing information. One variation is those who are better with the overall view of a project and those better at handling details. Although it’s useful to develop both (and the fluidity to shift from one to another like the zoom lens of a camera), most of us are more strongly wired in one style. Various psychological tests pick up on this difference, the most well-known being the Myers-Briggs Type; those who are more intuitive (N) are better at the overall view and those who are more Sensory (S) do better with details.
     Knowing your type, which you can probably guess from this description, can help you improve the time flow in your life.
___If you love the overview and long-range planning, but have trouble getting down to details, you might work on a shorter time frame than usual. This can help a tendency to be distracted at the day-to-day level. Other tools to handle distractability are those used for kids with attention problems: segmenting and sequencing tasks, orchestrating transitions between tasks, and that perennial bugaboo, reducing visual distraction.
___If you typically get stuck on details, choosing a larger time frame than you normally use can help you get a sense of the big picture. Creating an overview of the whole year can be an eye-opener (see below for sources) and is a good antidote for the sticky perfectionism that makes it hard to know when a piece is done.
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IV. Creative Links
www.simpleliving.net/timeday/  Friday, October 24th is Take Back Your Time Day. Check this site for information about how much Americans overwork and ideas of how to raise awareness of the importance of personal and leisure time.

www.vikingop.com. For those who find visual calendars helpful, this site allows one to quickly see the different types of organizer pages from several main companies. Both  FranklinCovey and Daytimer have hard-to-find year at a glance foldouts available here.
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V. Newsletter Info
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This material is included on the breakTHROUGH Creativity Coaching website (www.dianereardon.com). All material is copyrighted ©, 30 September 2003, Diane Reardon. All rights reserved. Visit the website for back issues and details on scheduling a complimentary one-hour coaching session.