Motivation and Inertia

Inertia is a physics term for the tendency of a body at rest to stay at rest, and a body in motion to stay in motion.  Taken out of the realm of physics, and grossly misapplied, I find it has a big effect on my motivation levels.  For instance, I find it difficult to keep normal hours, because my peak working hours start at eight or nine at night these days.  It's no coincidence that this is also the time that I start to feel tremendously guilty if I haven't already got an hour or two of work in.  After all, how am I suppose to be a successful artist if I don't get work made?  Having a studio away from home is a good illustration of this.  Once I've gotten to the studio, it's really easier to stay and keep working than to clean everything up and drive home.  On the other hand, it's harder to get out of the house and to the studio.  I find that if I'm not on my way by four in the afternoon, I'm probably not going to make it that day, and that I'll be working from the couch.  (This is not as terrible as it sounds, because I do all my fiber work at home.  It does put a damper on my metalwork though, as that's all done in my studio space.)

It's a difficult thing some days, to motivate yourself.  Sometimes it's when you're trapped in the middle of a large project that you lose some steam.  You haven't still got the excitement of just starting it, and the end isn't close enough for you to be excited about finishing it.  It's the long stretch of small steps that sometimes wears you down.  Sometimes it's helpful to work on a different project for a bit, although then you risk having half a dozen or more unfinished projects, which is a equally discouraging prospect.

So lately I've been toying with methods of motivating myself and testing their effectiveness.  One of the things that's been particularly helpful is the time sheet I've started keeping.  I print out a full page grid of the month, with the days down the left side, and the hours of the day across the top.  Whenever I'm working, I fill in the hourly squares of whatever day it is.  Actually, I fill them in by fifteen minute increments.  I've set a daily goal of six hours of work on my art projects per day.  (This sounds like a lot if you consider them a hobby, but it's not.  It's a job.  It just happens to be an awesome job.)  Because I don't have a workplace to show up at, I have to hold myself accountable for actually working.  I also don't get official weekends, or scheduled days off, which means I have to figure out when I really need a break, and when I'm just being lazy.  Part of my six hours a day goal says I only have to do it for six days out of seven, because that equals out to about what an office job would (after you subtract time for lunch breaks in an office setting).  Essentially, I've set up a time card system for myself.

I've found that this works best when I hit just the right level of guilt over hours I haven't worked, and pride over sticking to my goals.  It's particularly impressive over the long run: this is the fourth month I've been using a time card and also been the most successful.  Which might actually mean that I'm getting better at holding myself accountable!  Here's to hoping I don't drop the ball during the second half of the month!

Keep an eye out for my updated list of calls for entries this coming Tuesday.  I've got it scheduled to go up at noon!