As we’re in the run up to #The100DayProject, which is what gave me the kick up the bum to finally write The little book of Easy Creativity, I thought I’d share some of my favourite tips & ideas from it over the next few weeks
—–
The past few days I’ve seen some people talking about how they were thinking about doing The 100 Day Project, but now it’s getting closer they’re having second thoughts about being able to stick with doing something every day. And I get it, because until a couple of years ago I couldn’t see anything like this through for more than a week or two, let alone just over three months.
Between chronic health stuff & my neurodivergent brain it felt like an impossibility. So it still amazes me that I can be headed into a hundred days of doing something actually feeling excited and with confidence that I can make it to the other side.
The excitement comes from knowing what a massive part doing this project has played in what I’m doing creatively now – in fact my #100DaysOfQuilting project only exists because I did #100DaysOfEmbroidery & #100DaysOfCreativity. So I am ridiculously excited to bring embroidery and pattern design in this project, I can’t begin to imagine where I’ll be by the beginning of June, or where that will take me next!
One of the biggest things that makes it feel possible – and exciting – is because I let what counts as doing something towards my creative project be super small. It’s the teeniest tiniest thing I can think of.
Back in 2021, and again with #100DaysOfQuilting this year, it’s literally one stitch. If I do one stitch it counts towards my 100 day project.
When I was doing #100DaysOfEmbroidery there were a handful of days where I literally picked up an embroidery project did one or two stitches and put it down again. But there were lots of days where I picked it up and did so much more.
The point of me doing #The100DayProject is not to say I’ve done 100 days of whatever my project is (although it is lovely to celebrate that at the end 🥳)
I’m using the 100 days to regularly invest my time and energy in exploring an art or craft – be it embroidery, digital drawing or quilting – to help me develop my skills, confidence and even the next steps of my creative career!
The commitment to showing up for that project for 100 days, even in the teeniest tiniest way, gets me so much further than if I didn’t do it at all, or set myself a daily minimum that I’d fail to achieve sooner or later. For me, anything other than teeny tiny is unrealistic. I wouldn’t make it past a week, let alone just over three months!
I need to work with myself, and that means acknowledging there will be days my neurodivergent brain struggles to engage, and there are very likely to be days I have a chronic health flare up & I can’t do much more than rest. I If I’m going to see my 100 days through I have to allow myself days where engaging with it for only a minute or two still counts.
I might have 10 days – or even 50- out of 100 where I do the bare minimum, but if that means I keep showing up on all the other days, when I do so much more, then that is a big win for me.
Remember why you wanted to do your project in the first place… and then GO SMALL to make it happen!
(p.s. Giving it a go and not making it past the first few days is fine too – I have a little @raydodd in my brain always reminding me that something not working out doesn’t mean anything bad about me, it’s just something that happened, you can take whatever you want to learn from it and leave the rest)
If you’d like more support to put together a plan that works for you to do #The100DayProject or any other crafty or creative project then check out The little book of Easy Creativity. It comes with worksheets (or joysheets as I like to call them) giving you a space to gather your thoughts & make a plan that works for you!
Ko-Fi members get instant access to The little book of Easy Creativity for free when they join (current members can access it here) – but if membership isn’t for you then you can buy the book in my Ko-Fi shop instead!
Are you thinking of doing #The100DaysProject? I’d love to hear about your project and anything you’re in two minds about with it – send me a DM over on insta or leave a comment on one of my little book of Easy Creativity posts (if insta isn’t your thing you can find me in other places too)
