Making Warm Up

1. From wherever you are, connect to the outdoors. (5 minutes)

  • spend a minute looking and seeing. Note the movement. Note the presence of natural forces. If you do this every day, you can note the differences.
  • Listen. Hear whatever is there. Just spend a minute. You can close your eyes if you like. And you don’t need to identify the source of sounds, just take them in (let them in). Let the ambient sound be a one minute soundtrack.
  • If you are inside, and you are able, open the window. If you are outside, you’re all set. Sense the forces of nature on your skin. Maybe there are things to small. Maybe there are air currents. Maybe the warmth of the sun. Just take a minute.
  • Spend two minutes attempting to synch your own rhythms and impulses with those of the outdoors. Breathe with the world. Hum to it. Maybe even sing with it. Let yourself move. You don’t need to “dance” but let yourself move with the world. You’re a part of it. It’s a part of you.
2. Follow any impulse that occurred to you (5 minutes). 
  • You can continue, build from, or explode anything that was happening.
  • You might attend to a stray thought that you had during the above that you want to explore.
  • You could reflect (in writing or not).
  • You might feel done...and want to use the time to prepare your workspace.
3. Make a plan for your workday. (5 minutes) 
  • Include tasks, units of time (or achievement), and time to reflect and analyze.
  • Identifying specific tasks that will help you to explore/pursue actual curiosity sets you up for exploration and discovery and being interested in your work process. Making a to-do list of things that you need to make better because they don’t exist or because you are dissatisfied with them is a path to boredom and frustration.
  • If you want to make a little placard or two to cheer yourself on, go for it!
4. Do it.
  • Your day might not go as planned. In particular, if you are excited about a new direction, feel some permission. If you are flailing...maybe give yourself permission to skip to the next thing.
  • Don’t beat yourself up. No matter what.
  • Don’t give up on the day just because you’re frustrated. Direct your attention to a vein of your work that is still open, where there’s still interesting stuff to mine.

5. Reflect at the end of the day. Write yourself a quick note about what worked well today and what you want to do differently tomorrow.

6. Consider this. The next three weeks or so is a great opportunity for you to see what you can do, to get a sense of what you are like as a maker (in a very odd situation but still). It’s a chance to test your PERSONAL impulses and to, perhaps for the first time in your life, to do what you want to do to your own standard, following your own impulses and using the techniques that you choose. What an incredible gift that is. It’s a weird gift and one that you never would have selected for yourself...but it really is a rare opportunity.

Make the most of it. Whatever the most ends up being.

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