0:00

I'm

0:04

Sarah. And I'm Hayley, and

0:07

this is Seamwork Radio.

0:12

Welcome back Seamwork Radio where we

0:14

share practical ideas for building a creative

0:16

process So you can so with more intention

0:18

and joy. And today, we're talking

0:20

about what to do if you feel like you can never

0:22

find the time to sew. I think

0:25

that's something all of us have experienced from

0:27

time to time. So we're gonna cover

0:29

some of the blocks that we commonly encounter

0:31

when we want to sew, but we can't.

0:33

And then six strategies that might help you

0:35

to remove those blocks.

0:37

Okay. Let's start with our icebreaker for

0:39

today. What are some things

0:41

that have brought you creative joy

0:44

lately, Hailey? Oh, I like this

0:46

question. As we're recording this,

0:48

it's the end. Of twenty twenty two.

0:50

You you guys are all listening to this in

0:53

in February. But I

0:55

have a chunk of time ahead of me

0:57

that I'm gonna be able to you know, some time

0:59

off, be able to do some things,

1:01

hopefully creative things. And

1:03

the regular me, typical Haley

1:05

brain is like, Let's

1:08

plan it. Let's schedule it. Let's,

1:10

like, get a plan in action

1:13

and I'm forcing myself to

1:15

not have a plan. I'm, like,

1:17

I'm gonna schedule, like,

1:19

a couple days for myself to just,

1:21

like, not schedule other things,

1:24

but and hopefully do something

1:26

creative, but I'm trying to

1:29

lean into not having

1:31

a plan and that

1:33

has me like really

1:36

kind of extra excited for this time

1:39

the stretch of time ahead of me instead of

1:41

feeling like like, there's a

1:43

whole other to do list that I'm gonna have

1:45

to tackle in my time

1:47

off. It's just a little bit freaking.

1:49

So maybe I'll do something

1:52

cool, maybe I'll do nothing at all

1:54

and just think a

1:55

lot, and that's okay too. But

1:58

it's a creatively exciting idea.

2:00

That's really cool. I'm I'm trying

2:03

to be very mindful of that too because

2:05

I I want this

2:07

break or both the whole company goes

2:09

on a break for a couple weeks at the end of the year.

2:12

And I want this break to

2:14

be a time to rejuvenate. I

2:16

think I did a really good job of that last year, so

2:18

I'm trying to I have a little list of

2:20

things that I would like to do during

2:23

that time. That would be fun to do.

2:25

But I'm not gonna beat myself up

2:27

if I don't do them. They're just kind

2:29

of like a menu of things that

2:31

I can do if I if I feel like

2:33

it. Which is nice. I love

2:35

that a menu. I create little

2:37

menus for myself from time to time.

2:40

Maybe I'll

2:41

copy that thought What about

2:43

you, Siri? What are some things that are bringing

2:46

you creative joy lately? Well,

2:48

let's see. There are things that are

2:50

bringing me joy in. There are things So

2:52

this weekend, I

2:55

decided to sew a

2:57

curtain for my downstairs bathroom

3:00

And I was very excited about this. I ordered

3:02

this linen from Europe

3:04

that has these stripes on it. It was really

3:06

cool. And we've had this

3:08

like really busted shade

3:11

in our bath downstairs bathroom for

3:13

a long time for months and months. It was literally

3:15

safety pin together and it looked terrible.

3:18

And I got

3:20

this fabric and I was really excited and I thought,

3:22

this is gonna be great because it's such an easy

3:24

project. It's gonna take me an

3:27

hour at the most It's not even a full

3:29

curtain. It's a cafe curtain. It's really

3:31

small. And I was really excited about it.

3:33

And then I decided, I didn't wanna

3:35

make a pocket curtain. I wanted to make

3:38

I don't know if you've seen these, like, cafe curtains

3:40

that have, like, ties on the top, so

3:42

it just ties onto the rod. So decided

3:44

I wanted to do that, but I didn't have that

3:47

much fabric. The fabric that I bought

3:49

was just enough for the curtain

3:51

because I didn't wanna have any leftover.

3:53

I don't wanna be wasteful. So I decided to

3:55

make the ties really small and thin, and

3:57

I wanted them to be finished on one side.

3:59

So I was gonna turn each tie

4:02

independently instead of just one long

4:04

tube and then cutting it into strips. And

4:07

it was a huge mistake. It ended up being

4:09

such a nightmare I was trying to

4:11

turn like twenty four tiny tiny little

4:13

tubes. I don't own a bodcan,

4:16

so I was using a safety pin. And

4:18

the safety pin kept opening inside of

4:20

the tube. And, like, I

4:22

tried different safety pins, different I

4:25

tried a needle and thread, which is one that then

4:27

The thread kept breaking. I tried,

4:29

like, all my tricks. I've done this million times,

4:31

but it was just it was too thin. A couple of

4:33

them, even though I double stitched the

4:36

started unraveling. And one of them,

4:38

the safety pin got stuck and I had to cut it open

4:40

to get it out. And I was cursing. I

4:43

was so frustrated. I haven't

4:45

been this frustrated sewing in

4:47

years. Like, I was so frustrated.

4:50

And I think the most frustrating part about it

4:52

was I thought this was gonna be really easy

4:54

one hour project, and

4:57

it was not at all. And

4:59

in the end, it looks like it was a easy one

5:01

hour checked, but it wasn't. And

5:05

I ended up having to cut the ends anyway,

5:07

so they'd they'd be raw on one end anyway, which

5:09

looks great. It looks fine. I was just

5:11

so frustrated. But the reason I'm answering

5:13

this for what's bringing me creative joy

5:16

is that when I was done and

5:18

I finished and I hung it up and I step

5:20

back and I look Got it. I was like, oh, that

5:22

was fun. Honestly, something else now.

5:28

Like, immediately, all the anger

5:30

was gone. And I was just like, oh,

5:32

what else can I sew? And

5:35

I actually made, like, this blanket that

5:37

I'm sitting on right now after that, which is just

5:40

it's just a piece of fabric that's finished on the

5:42

ends. But It was

5:44

such a funny experience because I realized

5:46

that, you know, all of that frustration

5:48

is just part of the process and

5:51

it happens sometimes, but somehow

5:54

there's still some kind of enjoyment that

5:56

I get from it. Even in

5:58

spite of all those challenges. And sometimes it's not like that.

6:00

Sometimes you just wanna throw it out the window and never look

6:02

at your sewing machine again. But

6:05

in this case, I I don't know. I was able

6:07

to put it aside and just say,

6:09

well, I don't know. That wasn't too bad.

6:12

Even though it was. Well, it helps that it turned

6:14

out in the end. That probably

6:17

helps with the feelings of, you

6:19

know, satisfaction, ultimately

6:22

being satisfied anyway.

6:23

Yeah. It was very satisfying to hang it

6:25

up and to take down that busted shade

6:28

and step back and look at it and see how much

6:30

nicer it looked. So that was probably

6:32

a part of it. Alright. Well,

6:34

if you have an icebreaker that you wanna

6:36

share for a future episode, If

6:38

you're a member, you can leave it at seamark

6:41

dot com slash go slash

6:43

icebreakers, and we'll probably use it on

6:45

future episode. Alright.

6:48

So we're gonna talk about time

6:51

today, which is one of my favorite subjects

6:53

to talk about we are

6:55

all short on time. I think all of us feel

6:58

like we're short on time. I don't

7:00

know very many people who don't feel that way.

7:02

And whether you have a busy career or

7:05

you have a home to take care of or

7:07

you have kids or

7:09

parents or other people

7:11

to take care of or all these things in your life,

7:14

maybe illness, you probably

7:16

feel like you have more than you could possibly

7:19

do in a given week. That is

7:21

such a common feeling. So

7:24

when you feel that way, how do you

7:26

carve out time for the things

7:28

that you really enjoy like sewing. So

7:31

that's what we're gonna be talking about today.

7:33

And, Hailey, I want to start with a

7:34

question. Which is how do

7:37

you feel when you're really busy

7:39

and really rushed? I think. I

7:41

mean, beyond the, like, feelings of

7:44

anxiety which I associate

7:46

with feeling busy and feeling rushed

7:49

is I just feel not

7:51

very creative and

7:54

not very fulfilled when I

7:56

feel like I'm just living

7:58

a life of checking things. Off

8:01

of the to do list. I would say those

8:03

are the top two, unfulfilled and not creative.

8:06

Yeah. I definitely feel that too. It's

8:08

hard to be creative when you feel like you're

8:10

in rush or you have a limited

8:12

amount of time to do it. feel

8:14

like creativity often

8:17

at least starts. It's not always this

8:19

way. But I think the seeds of creativity,

8:21

when a creative idea first starts, it needs a

8:23

lot of openness and a lot of space. And

8:27

that's hard to get when you're feeling really really

8:29

rushed. I read a blog post a

8:31

while ago that said something

8:34

like being rushed is like being

8:36

in an altered state. And you make decisions

8:38

and you do things that you would never ordinarily

8:41

do. I thought that was really interesting

8:44

because I do often feel like when

8:46

I'm really rushed that I'm in another

8:48

totally different state of mind, and it

8:50

is sort of like being I don't know,

8:53

not drunk. It's like a it is definitely

8:55

a negative altered state though. It's

8:57

sort of, I don't know, you're not

8:59

as smart You're not as thoughtful.

9:03

You're more easily irritated.

9:05

You're more easily angered. You get

9:07

frustrated with, like, silly little things,

9:10

like somebody cutting you off

9:12

in a parking lot or, you know,

9:14

you're not yourself I think, when you're

9:16

feeling that way. And I've

9:18

noticed that a lot, and that's been something that I've

9:20

been trying to deal with

9:23

and trying to address because I often do feel

9:25

rushed. And I really don't

9:26

like that feeling. What would you say is

9:28

your relationship to that

9:30

feeling? I think it's hard to over

9:33

come. It's something that I would like to overcome that

9:35

feeling of being in

9:37

a rush all the time, but I feel like it's

9:39

very for me, it feels very habitual.

9:42

It feels very much like

9:44

I'm so used to trying

9:47

to cram as much stuff into my day.

9:49

As I can, that it just feels

9:51

like something that happens to me rather

9:53

than something that I can

9:56

control, which is not true. I can definitely control

9:58

it, but it it doesn't feel that way

10:00

in the moment. It feels like all this stuff is happening

10:02

to me, and I just have to deal with it. That's

10:04

kinda how I feel. I actually,

10:06

I wrote about this on my personal. I have a personal

10:08

newsletter now. If you're interested in it, you can go

10:10

to cerametnick dot com. That's my first name,

10:13

last name dot com, and you'll find it there. But

10:15

I wrote about this recently and that I'm trying

10:17

to have a couple times during

10:19

the day where I really don't do anything

10:21

else other than focus on what I'm doing. So I take

10:23

a walk in the morning. I try to just focus on taking

10:26

a walk in the morning, not listening to podcasts

10:29

or audiobooks or anything like that. I

10:31

try to have one meal a day at least from really just

10:33

focusing on what I'm doing, what

10:35

I'm eating. And that's been really, really

10:38

difficult for me. That's been a

10:40

really big challenge for me. But

10:42

it's been it's also been very healthy. And

10:45

so I don't know. I feel like there are little things

10:47

that I've tried to do to overcome

10:49

this feeling of being rushed. It's definitely something

10:51

I think about a lot obviously because

10:54

I do feel like it really affects

10:56

me. What about you? Oh,

10:58

gosh. I would have to agree that

11:00

in some ways the

11:02

busyness is habit tool for

11:05

me. And that's something that I've definitely been

11:07

trying to I've been unpacking and

11:10

dealing with in my own

11:12

life and how I get into

11:15

these kinds of situations of

11:18

being kind of chronically busy

11:21

And for me, personally and

11:24

I imagine that this is something

11:26

that a lot of people deal with is just

11:28

comes down to like

11:30

exploring my own, my

11:33

boundaries, not just my boundaries

11:35

with other people, but the boundaries that

11:37

I set with myself

11:40

and how I respect my

11:42

own time. I think that's

11:45

my relationship with busyness is

11:48

improving, but it's

11:50

a lot of work. It's a lot of

11:52

work and you have to take a lot of accountability with

11:54

yourself. To kind of acknowledge the

11:56

ways that you can

11:59

beat your own worst enemy

12:01

when it comes to this because, of course, there's lots

12:03

of outside things

12:06

that I have less control over that

12:08

keep me

12:08

busy, but a lot

12:10

of it is kind of in

12:12

my own hands, you know. It's funny that

12:14

you say that you about

12:17

setting boundaries with yourself because I

12:19

was just talking about that. At

12:21

work the other day. I was talking about this project

12:24

that I was supposed to do and I

12:26

did not finish. And I was saying

12:28

just I was telling somebody

12:30

at work, but I need to set better boundaries with myself

12:32

about what I take on, and she was laughing

12:34

at me and saying, like,

12:37

you need to have a conversation with yourself.

12:39

Like, talk to yourself about your boundaries.

12:42

I was like, yeah, I do. I

12:44

really do. Is

12:47

I I'm not clear with myself sometimes

12:50

about what I'm actually able to do. I think

12:52

the other thing that comes

12:54

into play is that being busy

12:56

all the time has positive

12:58

results. And I think that's something that a lot

13:00

of people don't acknowledge is that

13:03

some bad habits that we develop

13:05

throughout our lives. We develop because

13:08

we get positive results from them

13:10

even though they take a mental toll. And

13:12

so It's not necessarily

13:15

a problem you can or want to

13:17

eradicate completely, but it's more something

13:20

that you have to manage throughout your life.

13:22

And that's hard because it's very squishy. It's

13:24

not like something you can just overcome. It's

13:26

something that you just have

13:29

to be cognizant of. Because I

13:31

think, you know, if you're busy and you're

13:33

doing a lot of things and you're

13:35

accomplishing a lot, that's not wholly

13:37

bad. It's got good

13:39

stuff to go along with it. The problem I

13:41

think is when that becomes more important

13:44

to you than your own well-being.

13:46

I totally agree. I'm curious

13:49

how has your relationship with

13:51

busyness changed

13:53

as you've gotten older? It's changed

13:55

a lot. I feel like

13:58

I used to really revel in being

14:00

busy and really enjoy the feeling

14:03

of being busy. And having

14:05

a lot to do and getting things done and checking

14:07

things off. And more and

14:09

more, I find it kind of exhausting.

14:12

And like, never ending.

14:15

Like, I'm on a treadmill instead of feeling

14:17

like I'm accomplishing things. And

14:19

I also think I have gotten I

14:21

don't know if I'm worse at it, but I feel like I'm worse

14:23

at it multitasking. I feel

14:25

like getting just doing bouncing

14:27

from thing to thing and having no focus

14:30

throughout my day really takes

14:32

a a toll on me in a way that

14:34

I don't feel like it used to or maybe I just wasn't

14:36

as aware of

14:37

it. When I was younger. What about

14:39

you? Yeah. definitely agree

14:41

with that. It takes the

14:44

toll it seems to take on me is

14:46

greater now. Than I remember

14:48

it being before. Maybe my memory

14:50

just isn't that great. But

14:53

I feel like The busyness

14:55

takes away from other parts of

14:58

when I let it get out of control, it

15:00

takes away from other parts of my life,

15:02

be that you know, my

15:05

ability to be present with my friends

15:07

and my family, my and

15:09

in my ability to be present with

15:11

myself and the things that make

15:13

me happy, like sewing.

15:16

So that's kind of what we're gonna talk about

15:18

today. Is we're gonna

15:20

share the things that we've done that

15:23

have kind of helped us to

15:26

come back the ever

15:28

present busyness and to create

15:30

some more time for our own

15:33

sewing

15:33

practices. So, Sarah, do you wanna kick

15:36

us off with your tips? Yeah, I'm

15:38

gonna share a few. The first

15:40

one, and this is something that

15:42

I have given a lot of thought too. And again,

15:44

I think this is one of those things where

15:47

it's about managing rather

15:50

than eradicating. But that

15:52

is to identify what your

15:54

time thieves are. And

15:56

when I say time thieves, what I mean

15:58

is those things that

16:01

take up a lot of time unintentionally. You

16:04

don't intend to take up a lot of time in your

16:06

life, but they end up taking a lot of time

16:08

in your life. And these

16:10

might be things that feel

16:13

good to you in the moment. They might feel

16:15

like a good way to distress or

16:17

to relax, but then you end up doing

16:20

them for far longer than you intended

16:22

to do. And think if you notice that, if

16:24

you notice that you're spending a

16:26

lot more time than you would like on

16:28

something, that might be a hint to you

16:31

to take another look at it. So

16:33

a lot of these things, I think, will probably

16:35

come to mind for you already, but they might be things

16:38

like scrolling through social media

16:40

for hours at a time, or

16:42

it might be, you know, binge watching a

16:44

TV show, or even

16:47

binging on a a podcast or something

16:49

like that could be for some people,

16:51

things that you don't really intend to spend a lot of

16:53

time or, you know, falling into

16:55

a black hole on Facebook or

16:57

Reddit or any place like that. You know, there's a lot

16:59

of different ways that people spend time unintentionally.

17:03

And I think one thing to keep

17:05

in mind is whether these are things that

17:07

you're doing to truly relax

17:10

or if these are things that you're doing more

17:12

to zone out and just forget about

17:14

everything else that's going on in your head.

17:16

And I think that's a difficult distinction

17:19

to make in the moment sometimes. I

17:21

think it's totally fine to have these things that help

17:23

you zone out because we all need to zone out from

17:25

time to time. And I'm

17:27

not shaming anybody for spending time on

17:29

social media or on,

17:32

you know, TV shows or whatever you

17:34

do that you enjoy and that just helps you to relax

17:36

at the end of the day. It's totally fine, but it's like,

17:38

you know, it's like having a glass of wine at the end of the

17:40

day. It's it's good. But, you know, if you're having

17:42

ten glasses of wine, you might you

17:44

might think about where that's

17:46

coming from. So I think

17:48

this is something that I really tried to be mindful

17:51

of in the last couple years. I

17:53

set a boundary for myself. It was probably

17:55

a year ago. I think, you know, I was just looking back

17:57

at my resolutions they

18:00

weren't really brothers' solutions, but some things that I

18:02

wrote at the beginning of the year last year. One of

18:04

them was to stop watching TV

18:07

at all on on weekdays. And I've

18:09

actually kept that up and it hasn't been difficult

18:11

once I got used to it at all.

18:14

And it gave me a lot more space for doing things like

18:16

reading books or sewing or, you know, doing other

18:18

things that I enjoy and that

18:20

feel like they really mean something

18:22

to me. And that's not to say that, you know,

18:24

watching a movie or watching TV

18:26

is bad because I still do it

18:28

on the weekends. It's just, you know, finding

18:31

those little ways that you can manage

18:33

those unintentional

18:34

time thieves. Do you feel like that's true

18:36

for you too, Hailey? Yeah. I mean, I

18:39

think, like, anyone I can fall into, like,

18:41

these kind of, like, zone out holes, but

18:43

I try to be mindful of it.

18:45

Lots of times when Most

18:47

nights, I bathe Charlie and then

18:50

Eric reads her books and puts her to bed.

18:52

And during that

18:54

time, it's usually like you know, twenty

18:56

minutes,

18:57

I, like, give myself permission. That's my

18:59

lifetime where I get to just kind of, like,

19:02

zone

19:02

out and it just kind of feels good

19:04

on my brain. But then once

19:07

he's done, then I,

19:09

like, move on from it. And I think,

19:11

like, having little tactics like that

19:14

these times that I give myself permission,

19:17

my hall pass, to zone out

19:19

with, you know, boundaries really

19:22

is good and it's healthy and it's

19:24

not like I like it because

19:26

it's not like a one way. don't

19:29

know. It's not black or white,

19:31

you know. I'm not saying it's

19:33

not an all or nothing kind of mentality,

19:35

which for me and my personal experience,

19:38

I found this like, my happy place

19:40

for most things.

19:42

I think for me also there are certain

19:44

things that actually I was doing

19:46

that didn't feel good, but

19:48

it was still a way to distract myself. And

19:51

I think for a lot of people, social media fits into

19:53

that category at least at times. For

19:55

me reading the news, constantly

19:58

was I mean, I got into a habit for

20:00

a while where I was just constantly reading the news and

20:03

all the horrible stuff going on in the world and not

20:05

to say that you shouldn't be aware of. What's going on in

20:07

the world, but doing it that

20:09

much, that often was for

20:11

me not feeling like it was

20:13

adding to my life. So just kind

20:15

of starting to recognize those things was really

20:17

really helpful to me. My next tip

20:19

is to schedule a little

20:21

block of creative time So

20:24

this is something that I've been trying to do

20:26

on the weekends. And when I say creative

20:28

time, rather than trying to

20:30

schedule in hour or

20:32

two or three to so or

20:35

an hour or two to draw or

20:37

something like that, I'm trying

20:39

to schedule a single block of creative time

20:41

where I can pretty much do whatever I want that's

20:44

creative. So this could be

20:46

sewing, it could be writing, it

20:48

could be drawing, it could be just organizing my

20:50

sewing room, putting all my supplies

20:52

away, whatever it is that makes me feel

20:55

like I'm honoring my

20:57

creativity. I try to give myself

20:59

that time to do it. And what I like

21:01

about this is that it's very flexible

21:04

so that it's, you know, whatever I feel

21:06

like doing in the moment I can do. And

21:08

also, I just don't feel like it's another

21:10

to do on my to do list. It just feels

21:13

like a happy time. Where I get

21:15

to do what I feel like. It's like my little gift

21:17

to myself instead of feeling like, oh,

21:19

well, I scheduled two hours to write. And if I

21:21

don't do that, then I'm a failure today. So

21:24

That's been feeling really good to

21:25

me. I know, Hailey, you said you you've

21:27

been trying to schedule two hour blocks of time

21:29

for sewing. Yeah. I

21:31

do. Two hours is my leg. My

21:34

sweet spot when it comes to

21:36

amount of time for sewing. And

21:39

this is something I on

21:41

the nights that I don't take twenty minutes

21:43

to zone out. I do this when Eric's putting

21:45

Charlie down, I kind of like kick off my

21:47

sewing time in my room. And

21:49

again, when we're on

21:51

break, I'm gonna take I have a couple days

21:54

set aside that I'm gonna be doing this.

21:56

And it's kind of exciting

21:58

to see like what's gonna come. What

22:00

what am I gonna do? I don't know.

22:03

Yeah. Tune in next time

22:05

to find out what Ailey does.

22:08

I know it's kinda it's almost like makes you

22:11

anxious a little bit at least for me, little

22:13

bit nervous,

22:13

like, will I use my time wisely?

22:16

And then you have to sort of peeled

22:18

up back too. Yeah.

22:20

I look at it, like, it's kind of, like, when,

22:23

like, scheduling a date night, except it's

22:25

a date night with yourself, you know. So

22:28

that's kind of like a fun way to think of

22:30

it. Like, I I have a date night scheduled

22:32

every other night or every other week with my husband.

22:34

I don't always know what we're gonna do.

22:36

And sometimes we do something real fun and

22:38

exciting and sometimes we just go

22:41

somewhere simple up

22:43

the street like local haunt and

22:46

that's fine and it's the

22:48

same with my sewing

22:49

time, you know. I just schedule

22:51

it and it doesn't have to be grand,

22:53

it just has to be. We used to have date nights.

22:55

Before we moved to the country where there's

22:57

nothing nowhere to go. But every

23:01

day they ended up being the same at home.

23:05

Alright. Number

23:07

three, this is my third tip, which is

23:09

to reexamine all your

23:11

creative outlets and decide what's enough

23:13

for you right now. So

23:15

I don't know about you guys, but I have

23:17

a lot of different hobbies. So

23:20

I love to sew. I also love knit.

23:23

I love to write. I like to draw.

23:25

I like to garden. All of these

23:27

things take time. I like to cook. I like to bake.

23:29

They all take time. I love doing

23:32

all of them. But sometimes, if

23:35

I really wanna invest in one of one of

23:37

these pursuits, I need to decide what

23:39

can give and which of those hobbies

23:42

maybe I don't give up, but maybe I can put it on

23:44

the back burner for a little while. For

23:46

me lately, knitting has been sort

23:48

of this back burner thing. I've been

23:50

working on the same sweater for probably

23:52

six months and that's okay.

23:55

I just have it in a little bag next to my

23:57

bed and when I watch

23:59

a movie with Ken on the weekend, sometimes

24:01

I'll take it out and I'll knit a little bit on

24:03

it and it's so close to being done.

24:06

But Who knows how many warm months it's

24:08

gonna take me? So that's

24:10

okay. Like, I can put some of these things

24:12

on the back burner and maybe maybe

24:14

I'll have that reignited and

24:17

sparked again later. But for now, it's allowing

24:19

me more time to work on other

24:21

cool projects that are exciting

24:23

me right now. So just giving

24:25

yourself the flexibility to not feel

24:28

like you have to do it all all the time, even

24:30

if it's something that you really enjoy

24:32

and something that you get something out

24:34

of, it doesn't necessarily mean that it

24:36

all has to be done at once. And

24:38

if you really wanna pursue something like

24:41

sewing or you wanna pursue something

24:43

like gardening or whatever it does that is

24:45

really what is

24:47

driving you right now. You don't have to do

24:49

all your other hobbies all at the same time.

24:51

So that's just something that I've learned that

24:54

maybe can help you too.

24:56

Alright. Well, I have a few more

24:59

tips to add to those. So the next

25:01

tip is to use the four d's

25:03

before you prioritize. And

25:07

you may be thinking, hey, Lee, what are

25:09

the four d's? The four d's are

25:11

to delete. That means just remove

25:13

it from your list entirely. Delegate,

25:16

which is to have someone else do it, defer,

25:19

do it later, put it on your calendar for

25:21

another date, or do

25:24

And these are this is kind of a common

25:27

time management strategy. Siri and I

25:29

actually had to look it up where it

25:31

originated from because neither of

25:33

us knew. And apparently, it comes

25:35

from a book called The Power of Focus.

25:38

Neither of us recall reading

25:40

this book at any time. We don't know if we can recommend

25:43

it to you or not, but it is a really

25:45

helpful tool. There's

25:47

a book getting things done. That

25:49

recommends something similar that I utilize

25:52

all the time, which is, you know, if

25:54

something comes across, you know, your

25:56

desk If it takes ten minutes

25:58

or less, you do it immediately. Otherwise,

26:01

you delegate it or you schedule it for later.

26:03

And this is really similar to that. And

26:06

I like the four d's because it helps

26:08

you to analyze if there are things

26:11

that you can actually just get

26:13

away with not doing because

26:15

that's great. Sometimes

26:17

you don't need to do something. Unfortunately,

26:20

the deleting of

26:22

tasks is the d that I struggle

26:24

with. The most out of

26:26

all of them.

26:29

I think one thing that's really hard about that

26:31

is by the time it surfaces on your to

26:33

do list, you've already a lot of the

26:35

time, you've already committed to doing it.

26:38

And that's why it's on there. So

26:40

I think that's the hard part is not

26:43

committing to so many things.

26:47

Yeah. Something that well,

26:49

my therapist told me because this

26:51

is so that I struggle with this all

26:53

the time. He was telling me,

26:55

you should tell people Let

26:58

me think about that before you commit

27:00

to things. And then you can give yourself

27:03

the time. It takes the pressure

27:05

off because lots of times in the moment there's

27:07

a lot of pressure or perceived

27:10

pressure at least to say yes. And

27:12

by kind of deferring the answer at

27:14

least till later you remove a little bit of that

27:16

pressure and you can get a little space to think about

27:18

whether or not you actually wanna do it. So

27:22

you can also just defer the decision

27:24

till later so then you

27:26

can, you know, more comfortably delete.

27:29

Yeah. I think that's really good advice.

27:32

Because for me, I feel like

27:34

a lot of the time, it's not necessarily pressure

27:36

from other people, although sometimes it is.

27:38

And sometimes they're not even intending to pressure you. They're

27:40

just asking you a question. You

27:42

interpret it as, oh, they're asking me

27:44

for something. I can't say no. That's true

27:46

sometimes. But other times, I'm I'm just

27:48

genuinely excited about it, about

27:51

this new task. And I'm like,

27:53

I can do that. I can help you with that.

27:55

Or, you know, That sounds fun.

27:57

And I feel like maybe taking

28:00

a pause there and

28:02

thinking about it for a minute. Would be

28:04

helpful for me too because I think

28:06

most of the time it's more that I'm excited

28:08

to do it and want to do it than

28:10

it is that

28:12

I feel like there's an expectation that I'll do it.

28:14

That's what I'm telling you, sir. It's those boundaries

28:16

with yourself. I mean, both of us are

28:19

This is coming a lot a lot in this

28:21

episode. But yeah, the perceived pressure

28:23

from others and even our, you know,

28:26

self imposed pressure It's a

28:28

real thing. So defer the

28:30

decision to do until later. That

28:32

is the fifth d that I am adding

28:34

to the list of for you. So delete delegate

28:37

defer to do later, defer

28:40

to decide later or

28:42

do. It's

28:45

a lot improved

28:46

now. So many

28:48

views. Moving

28:51

on to a tip with LESDIs

28:53

is just strategize with your household

28:55

members so that you can, like,

28:57

figure out some ways maybe you can elaborate

29:00

better to get some things off of your

29:02

plate or, you know, just

29:04

better utilize your time. This is something that

29:07

I do constantly with

29:09

my husband is just

29:11

kind of having like kind

29:13

of like housekeeping meetings with

29:16

each other about like what's coming up

29:18

on the schedule and being flexible

29:20

with what our needs are and where

29:22

we need help. And this has been something

29:25

that has really helped

29:27

to create clearer

29:29

boundaries in my life. So I know what's going

29:31

on at all times and who's responsible

29:34

for what, but also to phrase up some time

29:36

for myself. I think a lot of

29:38

times women carry the

29:42

mental workload of

29:45

keeping a household in

29:47

general and coming together regularly

29:50

with your partner to make

29:52

sure that you're sharing that load, whether

29:54

you're, you know, whatever your

29:56

gender identity is, I think is really

29:59

healthy. To make sure that you're creating

30:01

that space so you can do the

30:03

creative things that you like more

30:05

often. I think this holds true for

30:07

people in your household and people

30:09

outside your household too. It might be something

30:12

that you need to talk about with

30:14

your your family outside of your

30:16

house, your friends, people at work, you

30:18

know, comes back to boundaries again, I

30:20

guess. And my final tip

30:23

is to create regular sewing

30:25

dates with someone else. Sometimes

30:28

it can be hard to,

30:30

you know, honor promises that

30:32

you made with yourself for

30:34

yourself. But maybe if you're

30:37

really struggling to do that on your own.

30:39

You can have someone that you meet up with

30:41

to help you stay accountable to that creative

30:44

time. So you can do this with

30:46

your, like, in real life

30:48

sewing buddies. If you don't have

30:50

anyone that you can do this with,

30:52

you can use the Seamwork community for this.

30:55

We've been doing more Zoom events lately,

30:57

and they're really fun. And

31:00

I've been making it a habit to, like, pop in

31:02

even if I feel like I don't have enough time.

31:04

And then I always end up having so much

31:06

fun that I like make a little bit more time

31:08

to stick around a little bit longer.

31:11

And I think that it gives you a reason

31:14

to get started, to stick

31:16

to sewing on that specific date

31:18

that you set, and plus it's really fun.

31:21

So I recommend it If you're more of an

31:23

in person person, then

31:25

you can check out your local. So in

31:27

shops to see if they have any events

31:29

or classes that you can attend.

31:32

And one of the really, I think one

31:34

of the cool benefits of

31:36

the pandemic is that a lot of

31:39

really great teachers have figured

31:41

out how to bring their classes online so

31:43

that more people regardless of their location

31:45

can attend. So you can also look up

31:47

some online workshops that

31:49

you can attend as

31:51

well. That's a very good tip.

31:53

That's something that would like

31:55

to do more of find some in person

31:57

events too. There's lots of

31:59

cool online events

32:00

that, like you said. When I was teaching

32:02

sewing classes, I had plenty of students that

32:04

even though they had probably, like, outgrown

32:07

the need for my hand holding

32:10

on various project, they would still sign up for

32:12

the classes just to have that time.

32:14

Set aside for sewing. And if

32:16

that's financially available to

32:18

you, I think that it's a really good way to wait make

32:20

time for yourself. Alright.

32:22

Well, I'm gonna recap real quick

32:24

our tips for today. We went through a lot.

32:26

We talked a lot about stuff that's

32:28

you know, going a little bit deeper, but we also

32:30

shared some tips. So the first tip

32:32

was to identify your

32:34

time thieves. And by that, we mean things

32:37

that take up your time unintentionally

32:39

and that you don't intend to spend so much time

32:41

on. Identify what those are. To

32:44

schedule a small block of creative time,

32:46

So this would be time that you can use to

32:49

do anything creative and

32:51

you can make that decision in the moment how you

32:53

wanna use it. To reexamine

32:56

all your outlets and decide what is

32:58

enough and which of your creative

33:00

outlets might go on the back burner for while so

33:02

you don't feel like you have to do everything. Tip

33:05

number four that Hailey shared was to use

33:07

the four d's before you prioritize

33:10

what's most important. So four d's are

33:12

delete delegate defer

33:14

or do. And then Hailey added

33:17

defer the decision to do, I think.

33:22

The the three extra d's in there. But

33:24

I I think that's a really good tip too. Strategize

33:27

with your household members, and

33:29

be really clear about what your needs are with the

33:31

people that are around you. And number

33:33

six, to create regular sewing dates

33:35

with someone else or with a group people whether

33:37

that's online or in person that

33:40

can give you the accountability and

33:42

space that you're looking for to

33:44

sew. So those are

33:46

our tips for today. I think my

33:49

biggest takeaway from this

33:51

episode, the one that I think I'm gonna put

33:53

to use immediately is

33:55

that idea of deferring the

33:58

decisions about things

34:00

when new commitments come up. I think

34:02

that might help me to free up a little

34:04

bit more time and stop trying to do

34:06

it all quite so often. What

34:08

about you? What's your big takeaway, Hailey?

34:11

Oh, that's a good

34:12

one. I think that

34:15

that's been a major takeaway in my life.

34:18

The one you just mentioned, like, in the last

34:20

couple weeks, been implementing it.

34:22

It's great. I think the other thing is

34:24

that maybe in twenty twenty three,

34:27

one of my goals will be to participate

34:30

in more

34:31

classes and workshops just to,

34:33

like, make some special time for

34:35

myself that sounds like that's

34:37

sounding really good to me right now. So

34:40

that's my takeaway. That's a good one

34:42

too. There are some great ones out there.

34:44

I feel like especially at the beginning of the year,

34:46

there there tend to be a lot of new ones popping up.

34:48

They're really fun. Alright. Well,

34:52

we also have

34:54

something for you. If you would like

34:56

to plan out your sewing,

34:59

I find that a really valuable tool

35:01

for giving myself the space and the

35:04

time to sew just to have everything

35:06

kind of thought through and

35:08

planned. And if that's something that you're interested

35:10

in, We have a free sewing planner, which

35:12

is a printable tool that helps you to

35:14

design and plan out your sewing projects. I

35:17

also think this is just a really fun activity

35:19

to do when you don't feel like you wanna

35:21

sew and you wanna don't wanna get out all your equipment.

35:24

Doing a little bit of sketching, planning.

35:27

Dreaming is another fun way

35:29

to be creative. Has a little bit of a

35:31

different flavor. So if that's something that

35:33

you're interested in, you can get that

35:35

free planner at c mark

35:37

dot com slash go

35:39

slash free dash planner. We'll

35:41

put link to that in the show notes. But at c mark

35:43

dot com slash go

35:46

slash free dash planner.

35:48

And it's really cool. It's got pages for sketching

35:50

out your looks and planning individual projects

35:53

for you to sketch those projects and add swatches.

35:56

Another cool thing is that since it's downloadable,

35:58

you can print as many pages as you need,

36:00

really make it customizable for you.

36:03

So go ahead and check it out

36:05

if you haven't already. And if

36:07

you liked this episode, we'd love it. If you

36:09

could leave us a review, we have

36:11

a review to share with you today from j

36:14

pearl f, I think is

36:16

is the handle. And j

36:18

pearl f says listening to

36:20

Seamwork Radio is like hanging out with the sewing

36:22

friends that I wish I had in real life. I always

36:25

leave with something to think about and inspires me

36:27

to continue sewing And best of all, Sarah and

36:29

Hailey make me laugh, and I feel happy after

36:31

each episode. I'm hoping that either

36:33

in the spring or fall, I'll be a little less busy

36:35

and be able to join around to design

36:37

your wardrobe and create some intentional items

36:39

for both myself and my little girl.

36:42

Thank you. Oh, that is so

36:44

sweet. I love that review. Thank

36:46

you so much for that. And if you have

36:48

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36:51

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So that's c mark dot com slash

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And that does it for us this week. I'm

38:02

Sarai in Daimili, and this is Seamark

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