When students ask me what’s the secret to making time for what they long to do, I always answer first with this: Schedule it!

I’m such a huge fan of scheduling regular time for your art or whatever gives your life meaning. When you want to make progress toward your big, scary dreams, or your little, delightful dreams, scheduling time for it is the best way to make it happen. Or, when you want o make time for whatever you love to do.

Because if you don’t schedule it, it doesn’t tend to happen. Have you noticed? Everything else seems to come first.

One summer, many years ago, I found myself without much teaching work because some planned classes didn’t fill. Although I’m sure I panicked about the lack of income, I also made a wonderful choice right then, a fateful choice.

I decided to set aside the kind of creative schedule I had wanted for years, or at least something near to it. I blocked out two hours on weekday mornings, four days a week, for what I call studio time. (My ideal schedule would be 3-4 hours 5 days a week, but this was as close a cousin as I could get and still earn a living.)

I’ve kept that schedule all these years, protecting the time zealously. I would refuse to schedule classes, meetings, or appointments during those sacred hours (sometimes against great pressure to do so). I would refuse to give up that time to others’ needs or my own distractions.

What a huge blessing that has been!

My studio time is my absolute favorite time of the day and week. It makes my life feel more meaningful, beautiful, fulfilling, and fun. And I make real progress on my creative projects, dreams, and goals.

When I got diagnosed with cancer last September, I gave up that studio time to the whirlwind of doctor’s appointments, phone calls, symptoms, and details. And I haven’t had it since.

As soon as I gave up my regular schedule, I stopped making art. Granted, I was going through a very tough time. But that time would have felt better, and less overwhelming, if I’d carved out even tiny amounts of time for creativity.

After the first horrible months of my healing journey, I began to salvage bits of time for art—like when I took on a 30-day challenge to fill one index card a day with some kind of art. Or when I had to write a new poem for the Ekphrastic Fantastic show I was invited to participate in. I started scheduling occasional creative play dates with friends. And I signed up to get Sketchbox delivered to my door once a month. (The photo above is from one of my first Sketchboxes, including the paintings I made following their tutorials and the art supplies they sent.)

But I didn’t save creative time on a schedule. To be fair, I couldn’t, due to the nature of my symptoms and the many healing treatments and appointments weekly. My life was a chaotic, unpredictable tornado.

Now that I have made huge progress in healing, I find myself missing my creative time so much. My life in the mornings, my best creative time, is still topsy-turvy. It’s when my body is most likely to act up with symptoms. And, having given up my precious schedule for so long, my morning routine with my husband has spilled over into that precious time I once had.

Lately, I’ve been writing on my weekly to-do list things like “Creative Time 5x” or, less ambitiously, “Creative Time 3x”, hoping for at least 15 minutes out of the day to make some kind of art. But guess what? If I don’t schedule it, it most often doesn’t happen. That’s what I’ve been telling my students for years, and it’s true!

I long to get my beloved creative schedule back. It’s going to take refiguring the morning routine with my husband, a lot of commitment, and also patience and flexibility as I continue to navigate the healing process.

I’m daunted by having to start from square one again. In so many ways. I’m having to re-invent myself, my life, and my work to fit with the new me that is rising from the ashes of this intense healing journey. And I’m navigating a painfully slow recovery process from major surgery two months ago.

But what a gift to get to do that! And I know I need this regular studio time like I need air to breathe. And I know it’s up to me to make it happen.

It starts with a decision, followed by commitment. And getting back on the horse every time I fall off. And it’s so worth it.

Is there something you long to do that you don’t get around to? You might try this to get started.