While I’ve been asked a few times (which is more of a comment every time I’m asked) “How do you find the time to do this?”, I actually am not sure.

My simple answer is “in the wee hours of the morning” when I wake up and cannot go to sleep. But I do squeeze in time here and there in the evenings when I can paint and draw.

I do think it’s about spending my time on what matters.

It comes back to my attention on the fact that I – and everyone else – are going to die, someday. I read “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” when I was around 20. An early chapter discusses what you have for the end in mind – not about work but instead about the entire orchestra of your life.

So I was sitting in an Ottawa dormitory, alone with plastic covered beds, thinking to myself what I would want people to talk about at my funeral.

There have been some instances where I muddle over whether or not to do something. Asking myself if I would regret not doing this when I’m dying helps me to answer the question.

The problem for me is having too much to do.

I’ve thought a lot about the book Workday Warrior by Ann Gomez which I’ve read recently to get a handle on everything. It instructs you to set 3 core priorities in work and 3 core priorities in your personal life.

There’s also a category for “future priorities”, which I find helpful. It lets me tell myself that while I would really love to do XYZ thing, I can do it at a later, more opportune time.

I realized on the eve of applying for another art show that this was probably not a good idea. At least not right now.

The decision was a relief to me. I was able to put it off as a “future priority”, so something I could do later. What was important to me was to have the time to make my art and paintings.

There’s a lot of shifting priorities for me right now. But I can hold fast to how I probably have more time to do everything I want, and I can only do a few things at a time.