Lista delle cose da fare

(English version below)

Mi trovo spesso a perdere un sacco di tempo per cercare di incastrare i mille mila progetti ed idee che mi balenano per la testa e a ritrovarmi puntualmente frustrata dopo aver fallito nell’impresa.

La pianificazione non è il mio forte. Nel mio mondo ideale mi piacerebbe essere super organizzata, menu settimanali, tempo da dedicare alla spesa/casa, tempo da dedicare a me, ecc. Ma la realtà è molto diversa! Ogni anno ci riprovo, soprattutto all’inizio dell’anno scolastico, e all’inizio funziona pure, ma dopo qualche tempo i miei piani iniziano a fare acqua da tutte le parti e vengono miseramente abbandonati.  Al di la di tutto però, la cosa di cui mi dispiaccio di più è che in tutto il caos giornaliero, l’unica cosa che poi alla fine viene sacrificata è sempre il tempo che vorrei dedicare ai miei progetti personali.

Pur partendo con le migliori intenzioni, al primo ostacolo il tempo per me viene messo da parte e così anche tutto l’entusiasmo per portare avanti le mie idee.

Perseguitata da questa frustrazione perenne, qualche tempo fa ho letto il libroBig Dreams, Daily Joys di Elise Blaha Cripe, una blogger/crafter/planner americana che seguo ormai da più di 10 anni. Il libro illustra in maniera molto semplice perché è importante pianificare per raggiungere un obiettivo e illustra un modo semplice per farlo in maniera efficace.

Soprassedendo sui dettagli contenuti nel libro, quello che mi ha colpito è la suddivisione dei progetti sul piano temporale e l’utilizzo di liste e sottoliste. Può sembrare un lavoro noioso e un’ulteriore perdita di tempo, ma vi assicuro che da quando ho seguito quest’approccio sono riuscita a fare molto più di quello che credevo possibile.

Questa nuova chiave di lettura mi ha permesso innanzitutto di mettere a fuoco quali sono i progetti che voglio realmente portare a termine.

Mettere su carta tutto quello che mi frulla per la testa mi ha liberato la mente e soprattutto aiutato a fare una scrematura di quello che realisticamente avrei il tempo di fare e cosa no.

La scelta è stata basata su:

  • Motivazione personale. Spesso quelle che sembrano inizialmente idee geniali, dopo un po’ perdono del loro fascino. Consapevole che il tempo che ho a disposizione ogni giorno non è molto, mi sono chiesta se provassi ancora piacere a portare a termine quel determinato progetto, anche se avevo già iniziato a lavorarci. Non c’è cosa peggiore che occupare il poco tempo libero a fare qualcosa che non ci diverte più.
  • Tempi di realizzazione. Questo è l’aspetto che più mi ha aiutata nella pianificazione. Una volta individuati i progetti a cui volevo lavorare li ho suddivisi per scadenza:
    1. Progetti settimanali
    2. Progetti mensili/bimensili
    3. Progetti a medio termine
    4. Progetti a lungo termine

Questo passaggio è stato fondamentale perché oltre a realizzare di non poter portare avanti più di un progetto settimanale alla volta, ha messo in risalto il fatto che, anche per i progetti a medio e lungo termine, l’impegno deve essere più o meno costante per evitare di ritrovarsi vicino alla scadenza con un progetto tutto da lavorare (anche se voglio sottolineare che le scadenze a cui mi riferisco me le sono autoimposte).

Una volta fatti questi passaggi, per ognuno dei progetti identificati, ho fatto una lista degli steps necessari a portare l’opera a compimento.

Vi faccio un esempio concreto. Il mio progetto settimanale è il diario botanico (di cui vi ho parlato qui). Gli steps che ho individuato per portare a termine il progetto sono:

  • Uscire a fare una passeggiata per trovare una pianta da riportare nel diario
  • Fare uno schizzo della pianta a matita
  • Completare con penna/colore
  • Fare una foto
  • Fare un post su instagram

Questi sono i vari passaggi che possono essere fatti tutti in una volta sola, oppure anche separatamente, ovviamente nell’ordine riportato. In questo modo mi è più semplice trovare il tempo per inserire uno di questi singoli step anche in quelle giornate che sembrano piene. E così avendo ben chiaro quali sono le cose che devono essere fatte in sequenza per completare il progetto, non mi sento sopraffatta e soprattutto non perdo tempo a pensare a cosa potrei fare quando mi ritrovo con 15 minuti liberi!

Stesso discorso vale ovviamente per tutti gli altri progetti, soprattutto quelli a lungo termine che danno la percezione di avere ancora tanto tempo a disposizione per poi accorgersi che il tempo è passato e non abbiamo fatto alcun progresso!

Spero che questo approccio possa aiutare anche voi a raggiungere i vostri obbiettivi un passo alla volta, con costanza e senza stress.

I often find myself wasting a lot of time trying to fit the thousands of projects and ideas that flash through my mind and often find myself frustrated after failing the task.

Planning is not my strong point. In my ideal world I would like to be perfectly organized, weekly menus, time allocated to grocery shopping and home chores, me time, etc. But the reality is very different! But I try again every year, especially at the beginning of the school year, and initially it even works, but after some time my plans start leaking and get thrown down the drain. Beyond everything, however, what I regret the most is that between the daily chaos, the only thing that gets cancelled is always the time I would like to dedicate to my personal projects.

Even when starting with the best of intentions, as soon as something unexpected comes up, the me time is set aside and so is all the enthusiasm to carry on with my projects and ideas.

Haunted by this perennial frustration, a while ago I read the book “Big Dreams, Daily Joys” by Elise Blaha Cripe, an American blogger / crafter / planner that I have been following for more than 10 years. The book explains in a very simple way why planning is important to achieve a goal and illustrates a simple way to do it effectively.

Without going into the details of the book, what struck me was the importance of deconstructing each project in terms of time and the use of lists and sublists. It may seem like a tedious job at first and a further waste of time, but I assure you that since I have followed this approach I have been able to do much more than I thought possible.

This new way of seeing a project allowed me, first of all, to select only the ones I really want to work on.

Putting all the ideas in my head on paper also freed my mind and above all helped me to skim what I would realistically have time to do and what not.

The choice was based on:

1) Personal motivation. Often what initially seem like a brilliant idea, after a while it loses its charm. Aware that the time I have available every day is not much, I asked myself if I still felt joy in completing that particular project, even though I had already started working on it. There is nothing worse than taking up the little free time available doing something that no longer please us.

2) Time for completion. This is the planning aspect that has helped me the most. Once I have identified the projects I wanted to work on, I divided them by timescale:

  1. Weekly projects
  2. Monthly / bi-monthly projects
  3. Medium-term projects
  4. Long-term projects

This step was fundamental because in addition to realizing that I cannot carry out more than one weekly project at a time, it highlighted the fact that, even for medium and long-term projects, the commitment must be more or less constant to avoid finding yourself close to the deadline with a project no were near finished (this is important even if the deadlines I am referring to are self-imposed).

Next, for each of the projects identified, I have made a list of the steps necessary to bring the work to completion.

I’ll give you a real example. My weekly project is my botanical perpetual journal (which I’m talking about it here). The steps I have identified to complete the project are:

  • Go for a walk to find a plant to add in the diary
  • Make a pencil sketch of the plant
  • Complete with pen / color
  • Take a picture
  • Make a post on instagram

These steps that can be done all at once, but also separately. Looking at a project as a series of smaller and simple steps make it easier for me to fit one of these tasks in between my daily commitment, even on those days that seem full. And so having clear what are the tasks that must be done in sequence to complete the project, I do not feel overwhelmed and above all I do not waste time thinking about what I could do when I find myself with 15 minutes to spare!

The same goes of course for all the other projects, especially the long-term ones that give the perception of still having a lot of time available only to realize that time has passed and you have not made any progress!

I hope this tips can help you in reaching your goals one step at a time, consistently and without stress.

2-week holiday sketchbook challenge

  The holiday season is upon us and like every year I like to set out some plans for creating memories and recording the summer time in a way that is not just taking pictures and let them sit on my laptop for the years to come. I love travel journals, but with a busy family schedule during the holidays is becoming more and more difficult to set aside the time to fill in a sketchbook.
This summer I’m going to try a different approach and inspired by Sara Midda’s South of France – A sketchbook, I’ve put together an easy sketchbook challenge to help me make a visual record of my two week summer holiday.
How does it work
The challenge is open to everyone interested in creating a holiday sketchbook.
It contains a total of 7 prompts + 1 for the cover page. Each prompt will be developed over two days on a two-page spread to give me, and you, the chance to plan the page, gather informations and make up the time to complete it.
I will be using mainly watercolours, but really any other material or technique (photos, collages, etc) will do.
List of (suggested) materials
  • 8 loose sheets of paper (I will be using A4 watercolour sheets)
  • pencil + eraser + pencil sharpener (I will be using an HB pencil)
  • black sketching pen (I will be using a Staedtler 0.1 black liner)
  • brushes (10mm flat sable, no. 5 round sable, no.1 round synthetic)
  • watercolours (I will be using a travel set I made out of a mint tin, containing: winsor yellow, indian yellow, scarlet lake, alizarin crimson, cerulean blue, french ultramarine, turquoise, winsor green blue shade, olive green, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, raw umber, burnt umber, titanium white)


List of prompts

  • Cover Page: Create a front page for your sketchbook. It could be a fun and colourful front cover or a more descriptive one, adding places and dates of your holiday.
  • Colour Chart: Create one or more colour palette based on the surroundings. It could be based on the colours of a landscape, a garden, a house, whatever catches your eyes, or all of the above. Next to each colour write down the object it refers to; i.e. olive tree, rose, shatter, plate, sky, etc.
  • Food: Create a page to depict the local food. It could be seasonal food, a special recipe, a list of favourite plates, a restaurant menu, your breakfast, a holiday treat.
  • Weather: Create a page to take notes about the weather during your holiday. It could be a weather legend, a 24-hour pie chart with the sky’s colour for each slice, the weather forecast for the 2-week holiday.
  • Journaling: Create a page for your journaling notes to include facts, quotes, dooddles, weather, feelings, daily routine.
  • Landscapes: Create a set of thumbnails to show the surrounding landscapes or local sceneries (beachscapes, cityscapes, local markets, etc)
  • Patterns: Look for patterns around you and create a series of small thumbnails adding some notes.
  • A collection of…: Create a spread of objects that caught your attention. It could be something from nature (flowers, plants, trees, fruits, stones, etc.), from the surroundings (house numbers, windows, signs, etc) or simple objects (vases, bags, shoes, mugs, etc).
I’ve created 2 different downloadable summaries of the prompts to use as a reference (look at the end of the post), so you can have it with you the whole time during your holiday.

There’s really no right way of doing this; you can finish off each page spread or leave blank spaces to add things later on; you can add more prompts or complete the given ones within a week.

The challenge can be tailored to meet your specific needs.

I will be posting each prompt and my personal take on it on Instagram every other day starting Friday 15 July 2016.

Everyone is welcome to join in! Simply use the prompts as your inspiration and use the hashtag #2weekholidaysketchbook if you are posting your pages on Instagram so we can all see your work and tag me @marina_cerra if you are joining in.

You are more than welcome to do this challenge on your own blog, just link back to this post. Thanks! Also let me know in the comments if you decide to join in; I’d love to see where your creativity takes you. Feel free to share the list and invite your friends to join along with you.
Happy creative holiday!

Downloadable jpgs (for personal use only)

Working through the middle of a project

 I’m one of those people who tends to jump right into a project with a lot of enthusiasm, hard work and big ideas. But also, with not enough planning and thinking through it. This leads most often than not to be completely burned out half way through the process, bringing depression, self doubts and the lot.
I had already recognised a few years ago, that short term projects do work best for me as the initial momentum is enough to get me to the end; we are talking monthly commitments tops. Although, even in those instances, sometimes my interest shifts after a few days or weeks.
I guess it is totally normal to feel like this at times, but I felt the need to dig a big deeper and figure out why this happens.
I recently started listening to some podcasts while driving back home after my morning school run, and a few weeks back I came across the Creative Pep Talks by Andy J. Miller. In one of the episodes (sorry couldn’t figure out which one was) he talked about the some of the key factors one should have to accomplish anything. And apart from familiar terms, like skills, planning, etc. the phrase the most resonated with me was “knowing the whys”. Knowing why you are doing some particular project, why you are committing to this particular job, why you do things the way you do it.
It is not always easy to answer, at least in my case, but asking oneself the question at the beginning of a project (and maybe writing it down) I think will help keeping in mind the end goal, and will serve as a motivation to get through the hard part of it.
When I started my #100daysofleaves, the idea was to, and I quote, “commit to something just for fun”. Well, the fun ended about half way through it, when I realised there were other things I wanted to do and spend time on. The motivation, the why, behind starting this project was not strong enough and not well thought to keep me afloat during the dry spell. We are now on day 64 out of 100, and I just posted on Instagram my group picture for the past 4 days….
Clearly I feel like there is no point in carrying on with this project, yet my tendency to self destruction and stubbornness is keeping me from leaving it.
I also feel that the failure for not keeping it up is equally depressing that the failure for doing a bad job. So there’s no win here.
However, finding new motivations, creating new goals and actually shifting the why of this commitment from “doing something just for fun” to “create something good everyday”, or “make a small leaf painting everyday”, could bring the spark back and help me reach the end in a much better state than I feel right now.
What keeps you motivated throughout a project? Any tips you want to share?

100 days of leaves

 It feels like a lifetime ago when I had time to plan year long projects and play monthly challenges. Two kids later and an overseas move, I think it’s about time to commit to something just for fun.
The100DayProject with Elle Luna & The Great Discontent has been on my mind since it launched back in 2014. It’s a community based making project, open to everyone with basically no rules, if not public commitment to make/do something for 100 days; showing up day after day is the actual goal.
illustration by Elle Luna
 
My action for these 100 days of making will be to create a page depicting a leaf; it could be a drawing, a painting, a collage, a print, a dried leaf. I want it to leave it as open as possible to experiment and also to make it easier to stick to it.
I’ve already made a small journal to simplify the process. Let’s see if I can get to the end of it!

Follow the hashtags #the100dayproject and #100daysofleaves on Instagram to see all my instances in one place!

The 100 day project will start next Tuesday April 19th and end Wednesday July 27th 2016.
Are you in?

Lately

I have been very busy lately jumping from one project to another, working day and night, whenever time and tiredness allow. I feel happy anytime I hold a pen or a brush in my hand, and life seems bright and colourful again.