Very funny and something I can definitely identify with! I too don't like interruptions but like others often find it helps the creative juices, albeit slow creative juices! When I was writing my masters dissertation I used to tie a red scarf on the bedroom door so my teenagers knew not to enter!
I am also a great procrastinator and get distracted by things that just have to be investigated - now!
I’m a great believer in 'pottering time' before getting down to serious business. As you say, it’s like a creative warm up just sometimes it's a bit of a long warm up!
I like your word side-quest because I have them aplenty. It’s very frustrating because I’d like to FINISH something, but oh look - that book on improv quilting/make a useless but decorative object… etc etc
I bet you do finish things, eventually, even if not within a societally-approved timescale!! Took me nearly 30 years to do something with the five metres of Harris tweed I bought back in 1992…and that’s despite having a very clear plan, complete with diagrams, jotted down in a notebook while hiding from the Hebridean rain in my little tent. Can’t rush these things 😅
I don’t have a career in textile art but I spend much of my day creating in my studio on the lower level of my house. Both my husband and I are retired. He was a university prof. and every day he feels the need to lecture his only student , me, about whatever . So he was constantly coming to my studio to lecture me . I very soon put a stop to that by telling him that he could only interrupt at set times and if he interrupted at any other time I would just act as if he didn’t exist.After being firmly ignored a couple of times, he got the message and I feel no guilt whatsoever. Yes I get distracted like everyone else but I am good with deadlines and challenges plus there is always tomorrow😊
Wow, I absolutely love this! I know I’d get sucked into whatever he was talking about (what subject area?!), doesn’t take much at all to lead me off course 😅 - see, I’m already interested in what he has to say! But I guess it’s different if you have to live with it 😁
Your reboot vest made me laugh! I try to reframe interruptions to my work as serendipitous inkspills. Maybe I don't need to be following the thread of the thoughts to arrive at a solution, and maybe the interruption provides exactly what is needed to proceed. Like when you're working the crossword and you get stuck and walk away for a bit and your brain just somehow supplies the answer.
Sounds like a description of my life. Yesterday, instead of working on a computer course that I signed up for and want to do to prove to myself that I can, and help me earn more income - needed - I spent the entire afternoon being sidetracked by looking at a website which I came across by accident. It was something to do with work to start with - not the computer course work, but my embroidery work - and I spent hours checking items of Japanese clothing that I'd really like to have. I almost bought some, but as I'm going to lose weight over the next few months............yes, really!........managed not to, and will wait to buy early next year before I go to Asia to visit my son. Lovely afternoon, but then I felt guilty for not having done the computing work, was too tired to do it by then, and didn't sleep well. Why do I never learn? Today's not been much better so far ....................!
Ah, sounds like my afternoon looking at VW Transporter conversion kits. I haven’t got a VW Transporter…and swore I’d never have a campervan 🤷🏻♀️ but hey, the day is nearly done and then it’s wine o'clock and hopefully I get another day to try again tomorrow!
I have at least almost finished the hand made book this afternoon that I started a few days ago, and will finish it tonight as I've not been distracted - so far!
Oh dear, campervans! I recently spent an afternoon looking up conversions for Berlingo's but fortunately my partner decided that it was too small and expensive to do, so I'll continue to look into every medium sized campervan that I see here is the supermarket carpark, ferry carpark, anywhere really! We can't afford one just now, but that's not stopping me from looking either. As you say, tomorrow's another day!
Ooh, sounds like we’re on the same mission! Have you looked at Ecowagon? They’ve really got us drooling…just need to find a few tens of thousands of ££ down the back of the sofa now!
It sounds very familiar to me, both for art and for reading. I love to read in long greedy immersions, without interruption. I'm quite discombobulated if my concentration is broken. I found a simple solution: the full hours timing starts again from zero with each interruption! It re-sets itself every time I'm interrupted. It causes annoyance, but it partly works!
I get this too. The scenic route is often the more creative one for me and where the great ideas happen. But there's a fine line between going off piste and procrastination in my world :)
Very funny and something I can definitely identify with! I too don't like interruptions but like others often find it helps the creative juices, albeit slow creative juices! When I was writing my masters dissertation I used to tie a red scarf on the bedroom door so my teenagers knew not to enter!
I am also a great procrastinator and get distracted by things that just have to be investigated - now!
I’m a great believer in 'pottering time' before getting down to serious business. As you say, it’s like a creative warm up just sometimes it's a bit of a long warm up!
I like your word side-quest because I have them aplenty. It’s very frustrating because I’d like to FINISH something, but oh look - that book on improv quilting/make a useless but decorative object… etc etc
I bet you do finish things, eventually, even if not within a societally-approved timescale!! Took me nearly 30 years to do something with the five metres of Harris tweed I bought back in 1992…and that’s despite having a very clear plan, complete with diagrams, jotted down in a notebook while hiding from the Hebridean rain in my little tent. Can’t rush these things 😅
That reboot vest is brilliant, and cute!
Thank you! ☺️
I don’t have a career in textile art but I spend much of my day creating in my studio on the lower level of my house. Both my husband and I are retired. He was a university prof. and every day he feels the need to lecture his only student , me, about whatever . So he was constantly coming to my studio to lecture me . I very soon put a stop to that by telling him that he could only interrupt at set times and if he interrupted at any other time I would just act as if he didn’t exist.After being firmly ignored a couple of times, he got the message and I feel no guilt whatsoever. Yes I get distracted like everyone else but I am good with deadlines and challenges plus there is always tomorrow😊
Wow, I absolutely love this! I know I’d get sucked into whatever he was talking about (what subject area?!), doesn’t take much at all to lead me off course 😅 - see, I’m already interested in what he has to say! But I guess it’s different if you have to live with it 😁
Your reboot vest made me laugh! I try to reframe interruptions to my work as serendipitous inkspills. Maybe I don't need to be following the thread of the thoughts to arrive at a solution, and maybe the interruption provides exactly what is needed to proceed. Like when you're working the crossword and you get stuck and walk away for a bit and your brain just somehow supplies the answer.
Hmmm, I like your thinking…I’ll give it a try for tonight's pootle!
Sounds like a description of my life. Yesterday, instead of working on a computer course that I signed up for and want to do to prove to myself that I can, and help me earn more income - needed - I spent the entire afternoon being sidetracked by looking at a website which I came across by accident. It was something to do with work to start with - not the computer course work, but my embroidery work - and I spent hours checking items of Japanese clothing that I'd really like to have. I almost bought some, but as I'm going to lose weight over the next few months............yes, really!........managed not to, and will wait to buy early next year before I go to Asia to visit my son. Lovely afternoon, but then I felt guilty for not having done the computing work, was too tired to do it by then, and didn't sleep well. Why do I never learn? Today's not been much better so far ....................!
Ah, sounds like my afternoon looking at VW Transporter conversion kits. I haven’t got a VW Transporter…and swore I’d never have a campervan 🤷🏻♀️ but hey, the day is nearly done and then it’s wine o'clock and hopefully I get another day to try again tomorrow!
I have at least almost finished the hand made book this afternoon that I started a few days ago, and will finish it tonight as I've not been distracted - so far!
Oh dear, campervans! I recently spent an afternoon looking up conversions for Berlingo's but fortunately my partner decided that it was too small and expensive to do, so I'll continue to look into every medium sized campervan that I see here is the supermarket carpark, ferry carpark, anywhere really! We can't afford one just now, but that's not stopping me from looking either. As you say, tomorrow's another day!
Ooh, sounds like we’re on the same mission! Have you looked at Ecowagon? They’ve really got us drooling…just need to find a few tens of thousands of ££ down the back of the sofa now!
I have now! Oh dear!
Sorry 😂
No apologies needed!
It sounds very familiar to me, both for art and for reading. I love to read in long greedy immersions, without interruption. I'm quite discombobulated if my concentration is broken. I found a simple solution: the full hours timing starts again from zero with each interruption! It re-sets itself every time I'm interrupted. It causes annoyance, but it partly works!
Ooh, I like your thinking 😁
I get this too. The scenic route is often the more creative one for me and where the great ideas happen. But there's a fine line between going off piste and procrastination in my world :)
Yes, all the ideas at the expense of actually finishing one of them! Story of my life 😅