Creative Routines

What part of your routine do you always try to skip if you can?

I always try and skip breakfast if I can. It takes up so much important time, when I could be doing more important things, like my morning routine.

I know, I probably don’t have much in the way of a morning routine since taking on this cafe/Gallery that opens at 6:30am most days, but let’s see…

I believe if you want to have a good, productive and fulfilling day you need to start it with your most important jobs first. Then you have much more opportunity to get the right stuff, the important stuff to you done in the day. Then the rest of the day can spiral into chaos if it wants, but you can relax in the knowledge that you’ve already got the important jobs done.

So what are the important jobs? Creativity has gotta be up there for the thriving artist, that and also self care. In fact self care should have come first because in order to work at your peak creatively you need to be in tip top condition mentally and physically. That’s why after my shower and getting dressed, I walk my dog to work. That way I feed many birds with the one dish, because it’s better than killing them with one stone. From this one activity I get exercise, mental clarity and boredom all essential ingredients for the thriving artist… plus the dog gets to stretch its legs.

Exercise is essential for the thriving artist as it gets the blood racing around your body. It gets things moving and delivers fresh oxygenated blood to your meat computer in your head, it’s like giving it a hose down, and because it’s a meat computer you can hose it down without shorting any circuits or risking it going rusty. This combined with the act of boredom in nature and you have the perfect storm for creative ideas to flourish. But don’t forget to bring your empty bread loaf bag from the breakfast that you didn’t eat to pick up your leaders poo on the way… Don’t get confused, we are here to serve our dogs.

From there I set up the cafe, pretty regular stuff, but that’s when I take the opportunity to make myself a proper coffee from the expresso machine. The simple act of drinking coffee is a change of focus for my creative brain. With focus being the perfect word. You see because my bored dog walk in nature was an act of gaining clarity, calmness and control via boredom and a brain cleanse, de-clutter and defrag. Now the coffee allows me to fill it again and go from the big picture to intense focus. This is when I record my morning podcast which is a reading of my blog, followed by illustrating whatever is my next job on my kids books usually illustrating on my iPad or sketchbook between pouring customers there morning coffee’s. My aim is to draw for a minimum of 5 minutes up to about an hour. Some mornings it’s surprising how much work I can get done between serving customers.

Get your important stuff done early, that’s my best recommendation for the perfect morning routine. If that’s what we are actually talking about. That and skipping breakfast. I think breakfast is only the most important meal of the day if you are a kid and you actually need it to avoid getting hangry. Otherwise you are probably like me and have enough stocks and reserves to make it to lunch time without perishing. Then you get a mini fast – if you drink black coffee – and if you dive into research on fasting you’ll find that it’s almost as important a meditation. Which is something I’ve missed here but usually fit in at the end of the day.