Creating healthy habits can be extremely difficult…and extremely rewarding! It takes dedication and patience to establish new routines that stick with you long-term.
There’s a trick to creating a daily habit: Keep the task under the amount of time that it will feel like a CHORE. Don’t set your expectations to draw for 1 hour every day if you know that you don’t have that time. Can you find 1 minute in your day? Draw for 1 minute. You heard me! 1 minute, then 2 minutes, then 3… That’s a fine way to get started because you know what? Big changes happen when you make teeny tiny small changes over time. It starts with 1 minute, or, the amount of time you would consider easy peasy to fit into each day.
What’s your goal?
First, ask yourself “Why am I Drawing Daily?”
-
Purely for entertainment?
-
Self-Expression?
-
Improve your mental health?
-
Art Therapy?
-
Just for fun?
-
A Creative Exercise?
-
A Brain Exercise?
Or, do you just need to take a daily break… from social media, the stock market, boredom, the (wonderful) kiddos, world events, or, from the voices in your head:-)
Perhaps you need to increase memory function, focus and concentration.
Maybe your goal includes all, or none of the above. Creating art is personal, and everyone has a different purpose for why they choose to spend their time in that space. What is your reason? What are your daily, or long-term goals?
Simple Daily Drawing can help:
-
Get inspiration with our monthly list of daily drawing prompts.
-
If you want to be surrounded by a community of artists that are drawing daily, join our private facebook group .
-
Maybe in the beginning you just want to watch what people are posting from the drawing prompts.
-
When you feel comfortable, share your interpretation of a prompt with the group!. You won’t regret it!
-
Be brave enough to not be perfect knowing that you are a unique artist created to draw!
-
Have fun.
-
If you’re serious about daily drawing, consider jumping into a sketchpad subscription with the daily prompts to act as your motivator!
Did I mention to have Fun? With a capital F!
Get in the mindset that drawing is fun. You don’t HAVE to draw, you GET to draw.
Keep drawing time less than that chore-feeling.
As I mentioned above, this measure of time ‘threshold’ is different for everyone. For some people drawing a sunset could be a quick sketch. For others, getting lost in the color, scale, and shading may take hours. The time that you allow yourself to create each day is critical in the success of creating a long-term habit.
If you’re like me, you could draw for hours… but I’m the mother of 4 with a full time job… so if I tried to give myself 2 hours per day for drawing that just wouldn’t be sustainable. I give myself 10-15 minutes. When I have more time, I spend more time, but I only expect myself to spend 10 minutes a day to call it a success.
Sometimes I don’t complete my project – I just leave and come back to the art creation if you need to… It is all about building your healthy habit via simpledailydrawing.com.
Give yourself a Reward.
Rewards can be physical, mental, even spiritual. For example, every day you draw, reward yourself with a quarter and by the end of the month, you will have the coins to buy a triple-chocolate latte. Or pet your cat after you draw, and you will feel extra amazing!
Mentally reward yourself with affirmations. Tell yourself:
-
I accomplished something today.
-
With each baby step, I am getting healthier.
-
I am an important part of a global drawing community.
Your success in doing something difficult like drawing every day is appreciated more than you may realize. Your SDD community will encourage you to take your drawing habit Social. Someone is out there who will learn from you, be inspired by you, be motivated by you, and in-turn will encourage them to start a daily drawing habit.
Be Gentle with yourself. Long-term habits require discipline and effort, especially at first, but healthy art habits can also set you free! What are you waiting for? If you have 1 minute, pick up your pencil and doodle!