In theory, I am always putting creativity first.
It is the most important thing in my work, it is the thing I want to spend the most time on, it is a key element in my life, and in my satisfaction with my life…
BUT
Things get in the way.
Creativity is the through-line in everything I do but it is also not a defined task.
Maybe if I only had one creative path it would be easier – if writing or drawing or storytelling or making bits and pieces, if only one of them loomed large in my plans.
Or maybe if my hobbies and my volunteer work were not so closely linked to my creativity, it would make the lines between my personal creative work and my other work clearer.
Or maybe if I didn’t have ADHD, it would be easier for me to organize my time and my priorities.
BUT
I have ADHD, I have creative hobbies and creative-adjacent volunteer work, and I have personal creative work and freelance creative work.
So everything gets jumbled.
And then I fall into one of two traps:
TRAP #1
I prioritize a lot of freelance creative work and creative-adjacent volunteer work and don’t immediately realize that those things aren’t my personal creative expression until I have run out of time.
TRAP #2
I try to get all my other work ‘out of the way’ by doing my volunteer work and freelance work first so I can free up lots of time for my personal creative work. And then I run out of time or energy for my less-defined creative tasks – after all, those I have to think up, figure out, AND do instead of just looking at a list and doing the things on there.*
*****
ANYWAY, I’m quite tired of being too tired to bring my own ideas to life so I am putting my personal creative time first whenever I can for the next few weeks so I can see if it makes a difference.
It’s quite possible there are other obstacles between me and the concrete forms of my ideas but until I move the big boulder of ‘putting everything else first’, I’m not going to be able to see them.
Let the experiment begin.
*Yes, my brain struggles with those things, too, but in a different way.