I gotta say, carving out time to pursue creative efforts is tough. Probably because art is not justifiable in terms of actual “usefulness,” unless you’re making something like furniture. I’d say art is one of the least pragmatic of disciplines simply because there’s not much perceived utility, whereas something like plumbing is seen as more useful. Which is understandable to a degree. A toilet that flushes itself every 5 minutes is more annoying than blank walls.

Art is really hard to quantify and qualify. (It’s really hard to price for this reason. It also explains why art is so expensive, since so much time goes into making it. Sadly, a lot of artists are making less than minimum wage on their work.) I can argue that creative endeavors go beyond ordinary utility or usefulness since they’re centered around a different kind of Value that is indeed difficult to quantify. You can’t deny the importance of art. Who would want to live in a world without music, art, or good food? It wouldn’t be worth much.

I think it’s this un-quantifiable-ness that makes it so hard to justify putting time aside to do creative work, just as it’s hard to sometimes justify taking time off. If you take a fishing trip, you’re not getting any work done, are you? But you come back refreshed, right? All too often, though, we wait until we’ve burned out before we do anything about it. That’s been my experience, at least.

So, setting time aside to work on my art is something I’ve personally struggled with for years. Since graduating from college in 2001 I’ve had difficulty setting time aside for doing art, although it’s the thing I want to do most. (Part of it is having a proper place to do it, but then again maybe I don’t want to do it badly enough?)

A few days ago, Nathan blogged about how he gets burned out he doesn’t take enough time away from “work.” While art isn’t necessarily a leisure activity, it’s just as necessary for people with that sort of drive. (Art is actually kind of anxiety-inducing, but it satisfies a sort of OCD desire to resolve an idea on canvas, in stone, or in music. That resolution in itself is very satisfying.)

I think the real solution is to set time aside for doing those creative things and sticking to it. I read a really great post recently that introduced me to this idea over at the Fine Art Views blog, where Jeffery Sparks talked about an artist who set aside time each evening to work on his art and get ready for his studio day, which was Saturday since he worked a day job during the week. I’ve attempted to do this, but I haven’t had any success due to all my current responsibilities at home. Then there are a number of distractions. When I was a bachelor, it was TV: reruns on Nick-at-Nite and Sci-Fi channel. Then as a newlywed it was just getting used to sharing a house with somebody and keeping things running, and now as a brand-new parent, it’s keeping the baby fed and the wife happy and the bills paid on time.

Like Nathan, I’m curious to know how you’ve conquered this, and if you’ve actually scheduled time to do your creative stuff. How did you make it work? Sound off in the forums.