It is a well accepted fact that the best way to improve your skills in any chosen field is to practice, practice, practice. This would ideally be in the form of focused practice in a specific area you’ve already identified as one that needs attention (after reviewing previous work), not just blindly rehashing the same mistakes over and over.
To be able to practice we need time and we need to use the time we have as efficiently as possible. It’s always going to be a challenge with a young family and a full time day job.
Sometimes I feel like I should be fitting in more, but when I look at how my week tends to play out:
Up at 6am, get ready and leave for work about 7:15, drop kids off at school or childcare and arrive by 8, work through until 4:30pm, commute home via pickups if needed, play with the kids and get them dinner, bathed and into bed by 7 (on a good day), make our own dinner and be all tidied up by about 8.
It’s only about here that my practice time can really begin.
I try not to work too late into the night (which can happen easily if I’m not glancing at the clock every now and then) because I’d like to create a consistent routine and getting stuff all sleep is unsustainable in the long term – I’d likely burn out at some point.
That gives me 2 – 2 ½ hours a night to work on improving my craft.
I keep Friday night free to spend with my wife watching a movie or whatever because it’s important to make sure that time together happens. Weekends are spent together as a family although I try to get another couple of hours practice in on Saturday night once the kids are in bed.
It doesn’t leave a lot of time, which says to me a couple of things:
- The time is there, you just have to strike the right balance between work life and family life. Each are equally important to both energise and refresh you for the rigors of the other and to for you to lead a fulfilling life.
- Whether in work time, family time, rest time, be completely present and put all your energy into what you are doing to make the most of the time you have.
It is also important to strike the right balance in terms of the proportion of time allocated to a particular task.
As someone undoubtedly wise once said…
Every ‘yes’ is a ‘no’ to something else
I see maintaining my blog and keeping a consistent posting schedule going as an important part in my development, however I would like to spend comparatively more time actually working on developing my art skills compared to writing about my art development (especially having recently enrolled in the Watts Atelier of the Arts and the time I want to commit to that) so for the immediate future I am planning to move to a fortnightly posting schedule to better reflect this.
By striking the right balance and keeping in mind the points highlighted above, the improvements will undoubtedly come.
