“Little and often” is the slogan that helps me keep my creative life on gentle track. A friend said it to me a lot of years ago and since then it has become the basis for my creative practice and a cornerstone of my teaching.
Every day (well five days a week) I set a timer for twenty minutes and do a little work on my current creative project. Little and often, twenty minutes by twenty minutes, I keep a little momentum going in my creative life.
Over the years by working little and often I’ve slowly built a body of work and a business that supports me.
Four days a week, in my podcast One Thing Today, I encourage other people to set a timer and work alongside me. Together we all move our creative lives on a little.
I think setting the timer creates a little bit of magic. If I’m stuck or feeling uninspired, winding up the timer and creating that little container of time usually gets me unstuck, and by the end of the twenty minutes a little inspiration has found me.
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Here’s more about the lovely Michael Nobbs: “I’m an artist, podcaster and tea drinker (not necessarily in that order!). Back at the end of the 1990s I was diagnosed with ME/CFS, a chronic illness that severely limits how much I can do each day. Over the years I’ve learnt a lot about living the best life I possibly can by accepting what I can’t change and working with what I can. I have built a successful creative career and am continuing to learn how to combine that with a gentle and fulfilling life.”
Read the other This Helps interviews as they appear here. These interviews are in celebration of my new book, ‘What Helps: Sixty Slogans to Live By‘.