Always in a rush? Never have time for your art, whatever form your art takes?
It’s try that the creative person needs long stretches of isolation to do his or her best work, but that doesn’t mean you that can’t do anything at all with just five minutes. And it doesn’t have to be your best work. Just do something. Anything. Or not.
Here’s a list of possiblities:
- Write something: a quick blog, a status update, a shopping list, a journal entry, a list of random ideas, a poem, a postcard to a friend, a love letter. If it’s Tuesday, try Five Minute Fiction.
- Sketch something: your pet, child, or spouse, a book on the table, your own hand or foot, the view from the window. Read Robert Sloan’s advice on creating five-minute art. Or this article by Courtney Jordan.
- Sing something: sing along with your favorite CD, or sing a capella a beloved song from childood, or a silly song, or a love song. Can’t sing? Hum,then. Or drum your hands on everything around you and listen to the different sounds. And maybe dance.
- Got a bucket list (which you might share here or here)? Or a list of impossible things you’d like to do? Use 5 minutes to research information about one of the activities on your list. That’s the first step to getting it done.
- Take a photograph of something: your pet, child, or spouse, a row of books, DVDs, brushes, or drawing implements, your cup of tea or coffee, your work in progress, the dead bug on your desk.
One of my Dead Bugs
- Read something: a news article, the sports page, the comics, a couple poems or pages of a novel, a blog, a new recipe, an instruction manual.
- Drink a glass of water. Staying hydrated is important.
- Tidy your office or studio. This is something we all put off, since we’d much rather be in the process of creating something rather than putting away our toys. But it does need to be done sometimes, and it can prove cleansing or meditative. And I almost always find something I thought I’d lost (or forgot I had) when I tidy up. So it’s all good.
- Stretch. Look out the window. Stand outside, if the weather is suitable. Take a deep breath. Stretch again in a different direction. Or two. Look around from that stretch position and see the world from a different angle.
- Meditate. Sometimes the best action is no action.
Don’t like any of my ideas? Try these:
Things to do when you’re bored.
