When daily obligations consume your time you may feel there is little room left in your schedule for side projects. Since the goal of our blog is to inspire you to be creative, we put ourselves to the test to show how you can do this by dedicating just a few minutes a day.  With Mother’s Day being one of the biggest holidays of the year, we created a challenge that required us to make a daily doodle containing the word ‘Mom’  for the month of May. Below are the top three things we learned.

1. Flex Your Creative Muscles

A great part about doodling is that there is no right or wrong way to do it. You can truly let your imagination run free and doodle your favorite pet, sport, or food using simple lines and shapes. You could also take the name of your favorite item and fill the letters with fun patterns. It may be seem rough starting out, but with practice you can gradually get better over time. Just take a look at some of our early doodles and how they got better as we went along.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

2. Be Accountable

Let’s be honest;  telling yourself that you are going to do something just isn’t enough at times. There will always be a bigger priority that comes up, or you’ll have a rough day and won’t feel like tackling the project at hand. If no one is holding you responsible for doing the work, there is a good chance you’ll always find something else to do with your time. We faced these very obstacles during our challenge and struggled at times to stick with our commitment.  Listed below are a few pointers that will help if you decide to take on your own 30-day challenge:

–Set a firm deadline for your project (this will help you plan the work and take steps to get the project done)

–Let friends and family know about your commitment (they can provide moral support and encourage you to stick with it, especially when you start slacking off! )

–Post your commitment on social media ( your network will be looking to see what you produce and ask questions if you don’t deliver)

–Track your daily progress (this will show you how far you’ve come even when you think you’ve made no progress at all )

3. Low Effort Exercise

If you are convinced there isn’t time in your day to be creative, doodling may change your mind. Doodling is a low effort activity that makes a good creative exercise–even if you have a demanding schedule. Contrary to what we believed getting started, our 30-day challenge made us realize that we actually had a few moments to spare whether it was during lunch break, in between client meetings, or on the weekends. Throughout our challenge we had to be mindful that our doodles were not meant to take up a ton of time. The point of the challenge was to produce fun, quick sketches that let our creativity flow onto paper.

To Sum it All Up

Doodling is a great way to unleash your creativity.  This challenge made us realize that not being perfect is ok. No matter how good or bad, we put our work out there and kept at it. A  30-day challenge is a great way to hone your creative skills, budget your time, and set a goal that you commit to completing.

 (Photo: The Creative Armory)

(The collection of doodles from our challenge can be found here)

Have you ever tried 30-day design challenge? If so, what kind? Share your thoughts in the comments!