What does it take to create a regular drawing habit?
Before we get to drawing habits… My husband can remember sitting crouched around his parents’ old black-and-white television set, watching the first-ever space shuttle launched into the unknown. After the nail-biting excitement of the countdown that shuttle and its incredible tail of flame shot upwards into the sky, disappeared from sight.
Tackling something new can feel a bit like a rocket launch
The anticipation of signing up for cartooning lessons and getting started with your drawing habit propels you along at warp speed… but now you actually have to keep going. So you make a commitment to your ‘future self; — the one who’s going to be churning out cartoon characters before long.
But as time goes on, motivation to pursue your drawing habit wanes
Probably sooner rather than later, you’ll want to give up. These three principles will help you to keep drawing day after day, week after week, month-in, month-out.
1. plan your week
2. every day is easier than some days
3. choose an anchor
Plan your week
When you are add something new into your life, it’s hard to find a slot. You need to plan ahead, be aware of your other commitments, figure out what you going to take the time from.
Sit down with your diary, and schedule drawing time. You only need 15 – 30 minutes a day. If it’s not scheduled, it’s not real — we tend to think “Oh I’ll do it sometime tomorrow,” and when tomorrow comes, we realise the diary is chock-a-block… and cartooning goes by the board.
Strangely enough, it’s easier to do more rather than less. In fact…
Drawing daily is easier than drawing less often
It may sound counterintuitive, but it’s actually way easier to do something every single day than not. When you do something every day, it becomes a rhythm and you never wonder whether this is an ‘on’ day or an ‘off’ day.
Doing something daily becomes even easier if you link it to something you already do daily.
Choose an existing anchor to create a drawing habit
BJ Fogg of Stanford University came up with what he calls Tiny Habits, and the principle is simply this:
Link an anchor habit (something you already do every day) with
the new habit you want to grow (in this case, doing da Vinci work), and then
celebrate that you did it.
You need to choose an anchor that works for you, and this will vary from person to person.
For instance, one of the students on my new Da Vinci course has been cartooning as soon as he gets up in the morning. His anchor habit has to allow leeway for 15-30 minutes of cartooning. So his ‘habit recipe’ looks like this:
After I (get out of bed)
I will (do my Da Vinci assignment) & then
I will tell myself “I’m awesome!”
(By the way, the ‘celebrating’ may sound ridiculous, but it is INCREDIBLY important. Don’t leave it out!)
Now, that recipe doesn’t work for me
My morning routine is tight already what with running, making breakfast and getting kids up and off to school. So I have two choices: get up earlier, or find a different anchor. At the moment I’m opting for a different anchor 🙂
The thing is, what anchor will work for YOU?
Research has shown that without an anchor (or a trigger, as some experts like Charles Duhigg call it), you won’t easily remember to do your new habit each day.
That first space shuttle didn’t run out of fuel
It didn’t crash and burn.
And your new habit needn’t either, as long as you schedule your drawing time daily, and choose the right anchor habit.
While you’re here, take a look at 24 Ways to Keep Drawing (Even With No Deadline)