“There is never enough time!” is a common refrain that I hear from most quilters. While it would be fun to quilt 24/7, the sad reality is that we all have other demands on our time. That leaves us with two choices: carve out more time to quilt or make better use of the quilting time that we have. There are only 24 hours in a day and you have many demands on your time so the hard-to-accept truth is that something has to give. If you are serious about making more time to quilt, you are going to have to make some changes in the way you approach your life.
Make Quilting a Priority
If you truly want to quilt, then you have to make it a priority. You can make room in your schedule for quilting by reducing the time spent on other less important activities in your life. Identify the time wasters and eliminate them. This may mean turning off the TV or Netflix (one of my biggest time wasters), closing that oh-so-hard-to-put-down book, getting off the phone or at least limiting the time you spend on each call, or turning off the computer (but not while you are reading this article!). Eliminate time wasters and only do the things that are at least as important as quilting. It’s your life so you will need to decide what specific activities you will eliminate, but be brutal – remember, every minute spent on an unimportant task is a minute that you could be creating something wonderful in your quilt studio.
Organize Your Life
Now that you have decided to make quilting a priority, organize the other aspects of your life so that you can arrange to set aside good-sized chunks of time to focus on quilting with no distractions. Batch tasks together so that you can get them accomplished at the same time. For example, run all your errands on the same car trip so you don’t waste time driving back and forth. Automate tasks so that they happen with minimal supervision. A good example of this is programming your washer to start early in the morning. That way when you wake up you can put the wet clothes in the drier and have them drying while you eat your breakfast. There are thousands of ways to organize your life to free up time for quilting: it just requires making the effort to step back, find efficiencies, and then change your habits.
Enlist Your Friends and Family
Your friends and family are going to notice when you start prioritizing quilting and reorganizing your time so you may as well enlist them in the process. They will have to make adjustments as you become more jealous of your quilting time and more organized in your schedule but if you let them know why you are doing it they will eventually come around. Spouses can be resistant to change, especially if you have spoiled them by arranging your life around their interests. You may need to have the “talk” about why it is okay that they disappear for 3 hours at a time to play golf, hockey, soccer, etc., but it is not okay when you schedule 3 hours of quilting. You may need to have this talk more than once but most people that care for you will be willing to make the necessary adjustments. Be persistent, but realize that it may take them a little time to adjust to the new schedule. Be selfish – you are worth it! One easy example is to pick a day of the week where dinner is take-out or, even better, delivered. This allows you to use the time you would have spent preparing dinner to quilt and your family can have a treat for dinner. A win all around! It may not be the cheapest way to eat but if you order out occasionally anyway then do it strategically so that you can use the freed-up time to quilt.
The key to getting more time to quilt is to make quilting a priority, organize your life to allocate more time to quilt, and enlist your friends and family to support you. You will be amazed at how much time becomes available once you make a determined effort to find it.
You may be interested in the guide “Time Saving Tips for Quilters” where I have compiled a list of time saving tips. Click here is you want more information.
Creatively,
P.S. Do you strive to improve your quilting skills? Do you want to have fun doing it? Do you want to meet other quilters in a supportive, safe environment? If you answered “yes” to these questions, you need to join The Quilter’s Way. The Quilter’s Way is the only quilting membership site that includes both training and an active, supportive online community. It’s not your grandmother’s quilting circle! Don’t wait another day! Join now.
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