Being the owner of a creative business can be a strange balancing act. On the one hand, you have to be strategic, logical, and analytical as a CEO. Then you ALSO have to be creative, intuitive, and empathetic to do your best work as a designer. WHOA! Even the best designer can have a hard time balancing those two sides. And many designer actually resist structure and processes because they think it will hurt their creativity. But I'm here to tell you ... IT WON'T. 

In fact, I believe a calendar helps you UNLEASH your creativity! It will support your ability to think big - and here's why.

1. You Don't Have Time NOW

The funny thing about designers thinking a schedule will hurt their creativity is that they barely have time to be creative as it is! If you're like most designers, you're running around 100 miles a minute with your hair on fire most days. If you do stop to go through fabrics in your workroom or look over color selections, you're squeezing it into a busy day and not giving it as much time as it really needs! RIGHT?! No one is at their most creative when they're run down and working at warp speed. A schedule forces you to add time to stop, breathe, and dream. We ALL need that!

2. Avoid Distractions

So my favorite way to use my calendar is to block time. And that includes a BIG block for creativity. Just like any other thing on my to do list, design time gets its own color and blocking on my Apple calendar. That sends a signal to my team (and to me, really) that NO ONE should disturb me unless there is an emergency. I turn my phone off, I close my computer, and I start letting my creativity loose. I might look through my travel photos (my favorite source of inspiration!), I will flip through new fabric samples, I'll play music, and I'll dream for my clients. I set the mood for my creativity! And that definitely doesn't work if you have people knocking on your door or if your phone is constantly buzzing and pinging. Set time in your schedule and do NOT let anyone distract you from your design time.

3. Hit Your Rhythm

When are you at your peak creatively? I've read that some people actually like to be a little tired because they feel that their brains shut off the noise a bit and are better able to just dream. You might be a morning person, or a bit of a night owl. No matter what, try to schedule your design time for when you are the most open to being creative. That's really key to making a schedule work for your right-brain side. It sets you up to do your best work. And don't be afraid to give yourself PLENTY of time for that creativity! I will often give my design time a half day or even a full day if I have a BIG project. Your creativity IS what makes you a great designer and you need to protect it as your biggest asset.

And that's it right there!! Your schedule PROTECTS your creativity! So be sure you have a great calendar with lots of Design Time scheduled on it. To help you with that, download my FREE Checklist for Recurring Calendar Items here. And start scheduling your creative time!

xoxo,

Kathleen