Art at the speed of life

On the cumulative power of creating in tiny chunks of time plus an update on my 100 day project

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Hello loves,

We’re over half way through the 100 day project already, so I thought I’d do a little check-in and share some reflections from my Three Tiny Things Project.

My aim this year was to use the 100 day project as a catalyst to develop a practice of noticing the little moments of my life. When I started, I thought it would simply be an observation and presence practice — noticing my environment and surroundings, making a note of it, along with any feelings that may arise in the moment.

But the Three Tiny Things Project turned into a practice that helps me to not just look outwards, at my sweet little life, but also to look inwards, at my big, stormy feelings. Along with the observations on the birds and squirrels that visit the tree outside my window; the stray cat that comes to the door, demanding to be fed; the feeling of paint covering my fingers; I’m also noticing my exhaustion, all the ways in which I still am beholden to toxic productivity, and how my journal holds all of my worries.

Despite its deceptively simple list format, the Three Tiny Things project is anything but tiny! Within a span of 50 days, it has become a practice that’s both gentle and deep; light and dark…a practice that allows me to show up in all my humanness, with all my anxieties and flaws, and with all my capacity for joy and beauty. There’s space here for all of it.

As I scan through my lists, I can see a tapestry of these last 50-odd days. The quiet joys woven in with the deep despair; the hope and the exhaustion and wrestling with difficult decisions — it’s all here, in these short little lists. Just 3 things recorded every day creates a richness that I hadn’t fully expected going into this project.

This just re-enforces the fact that small steps can lead to big outcomes.

So often, we leave projects and ideas on hold because we feel like we don’t have enough time to devote to them. But 5 minutes? 10? I think most of us can find that tiny pocket of time in our days. And we don’t need to get up 30 minutes earlier or go to bed 30 minutes later like all the productivity gurus tell us we need to! Perhaps all that we need is to spend a little less time on our phones and work on our ideas instead. Just 5-10 minutes a day can create a cumulative impact that’s difficult to imagine until you actually do it.

This works for a creative practice as well.

I don’t always have hours to spend on my painting sessions; most times, all I can manage is a relatively short 30 minutes to an hour of painting. But I’ve worked in even smaller chunks of time — 10 minutes on one day, 7 minutes on another, with a few chunks of 15-20 minutes thrown in from time to time.

The shortest amount of time I’ve spent art journaling is 2 minutes. Yes, you read that right. Just 2 minutes over 7 days and one 3 minute session for a total of roughly 17 minutes, over a span of a week, to create a simple, small art journal page. You can see the entire process, and exactly what I did during each 2 minute art session, here. It’s not fancy, but it is a simple and quick way to pick up your art supplies every day.

Which brings me back to the cumulative power of small steps, small actions, small chunks of time — until you actually experience it, it can be difficult to imagine just how much of a cumulative impact those small steps can have.

For this week, why not challenge yourself to spend just around 5 to 10 minutes working on a project or idea that you’ve been putting off due to lack of time? For some added accountability, reply to this e-mail or comment below and tell me what you’re working on this week. And for some bonus points, come back here at the end of the week and tell me what you achieved!

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