So, I feel like I’m phoning it in a bit today. It’s been a fun, busy day – church, Halloween costume hunting, lunch with our old neighbors (“old” meaning neighbors at our old house, not their age, of course), trips to the park.

When the kids were napping, I sat down to catch up on email. Super creative, right? I’ve been so behind on email and other to-do list tasks I need to accomplish, I feel guilty for every minute I spend NOT doing these things – like sewing or making jewelry or writing or even reading. (I won’t tell you how much I owe on an overdue library book that I’m only halfway through. I actually spent a few minutes yesterday calculating how many more days I have to finish the book before my fines are more than it would cost to just buy the book for Kindle.)

So I gave myself a deadline of today to clear out my inbox and complete all these other tasks on my to-do list.

As I began this “Creative Habit” journey, I knew one of my biggest foes would be Email (and its kindred spirits, Facebook and Feedly and Pinterest). It’s clear that I’ve made lots of growth in this area because, instead of checking all of these things immediately when the kids nap, I check it quickly before I go to bed in hopes of not missing something really important. (And then, three days later, I have 87 unread messages, and I have no idea what has now become really important because it has a deadline.)

So, while it feels wonderful to make something every single day, being mom to two little people makes it very challenging. I just can’t do everything every day. I believe that taking the time to “clear the decks” – as long as it’s not used as an excuse for not creating – can be a great way to make room for more creativity.

At least that’s what I’m hoping, because tomorrow during nap time, I’ll have no excuse.

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This post is part of a 31 day series. Find all the posts in this series here.

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