Making Time for What Makes You Happy: Why Do We Keep Putting It Off?

Emma Bryant: Hello and welcome back to The Purposeful Shift. In today's episode, I am talking about something that I have been noticing in my own life, which is how easily I put off doing things that I genuinely enjoy because there is always something else that seems to be more important to do. I've been thinking about why I do that, particularly when I know how much happier I feel when I make time for those things. And it all started with a phrase that I've had going around in my head recently. Easy to do is easy to put off. I can't remember where I first heard that phrase. It might have been something I read or something somebody said, but it has stayed with me. Easy to do is easy to put off. And I have been thinking about how often we put off things that we genuinely want to actually do. I don't necessarily mean things that are difficult or unpleasant. I'm thinking about the things that we actually enjoy, but that never seem to make it to the top of the to-do list because there's no particular urgency attached to them. Nobody is waiting for us to do them. There's no deadline. And there always seems to be, for me certainly, something else that needs my attention, that takes priority and that comes first. There is something that I have been putting off in my own life for quite a while and being on the master's course recently has really brought that to my attention. been so fortunate over the past nine months to have been spending time with some incredibly creative people. There are writers, painters, sculptors, performers, all working on their own independent and very different projects and exploring their own ideas and developing their own creativity. And I have just found it so inspiring. One of the women on the course writes poetry. And after talking to her about her work quite early on, I found myself having a go at writing some poems of my own. And I've never thought about myself as a poet or somebody who writes poetry, but I really enjoyed giving it a try. I wasn't writing my poems for an audience or planning to do anything with them. They were just for me. And that made it so freeing and enjoyable. I did end up sharing a few with her and she was really encouraging about them, which was lovely and reassuring and just made me want to write some more. There's another lady on the course who is a writer and talking to her has just encouraged me to explore writing more myself as well. I had been thinking about writing some pieces for Substack and I have done some and they obviously aren't great, but you know, they're out there in the world and that's the first step. And I've also written a couple of articles recently about the podcast for a couple of American publications, which is exciting. And I'm looking forward to seeing those being published. Personally, I'm still figuring out what I actually want to write about, but I've really enjoyed trying something different. And that's one of the things that I have appreciated about being around other creative people. Their enthusiasm for what they do has encouraged me to experiment with things that I might not otherwise have even considered putting some time to or exploring. I am definitely not trying to become a poet. I would love to be a writer. I'm finding enjoyment at the moment still exploring what interests me and what I would like to spend more time doing. But there's one thing that I already know that I love and that I haven't done at all in 2026. and that's printmaking. I really enjoy lino printing. I love the whole process of coming up with the idea, drawing the image, transferring it onto the lino, carving it, and then finally making the print at the end and peeling back the paper and seeing what you've produced come to life. There is something so satisfying about seeing an image appear on the paper. And what's really interesting is that sometimes when it doesn't quite print the way you wanted it to or expected it to, it often has more charm and more personality. And that's what I really love and enjoy about the process. I like making things with my hands. I love working with wood. I love concentrating on something completely different from the things that I spend most working day doing. which involves me being sat at computer doing marketing, which I love, but it's not the same. And when I'm actually making things and I'm something from an idea or concept or raw materials and then doing something with it and producing something totally different at the end, I feel so happy. It gives me this incredible buzz and feeling of accomplishment. And I can get completely absorbed in what I'm doing. And I don't find myself wandering around the house looking for something to eat or getting up and away from my desk because I'm bored and I'm struggling to concentrate. I'm just enjoying what I'm doing and time can go by and hours can be spent and I don't even realise the time because I'm just in the moment in the process. And I've realised recently how much I miss that feeling because so much of my working life and so much of my week involves me sitting at a desk and I'm writing or I'm planning or I'm answering emails or working on projects, even preparing podcast episodes and recording them and editing the recordings, it all takes so much time. And whilst there are parts of that work that I do really enjoy, I think I've known for a long time that that's not what I want to spend the rest of my working life doing. But now what I'm realising is that I also don't want to spend the rest of my working life sat at a desk. I would so love to do something more creative. And if I could find a way to make a career out of doing something like printmaking, I think I would be incredibly happy. And I just don't know what that looks like yet. And the irony in this is that the master's course that I'm on had I known what that creative endeavour would be when I started, I would be pursuing that, which could be printmaking, rather than this podcast. So I know everything happens at the right time for a reason, and this podcast has come first for a reason. So I'm bearing that in mind because as much as I love printmaking, I still seem to hardly ever find time for it. And I have got plenty of reasons or excuses, depending on your outlook of why that is. And a few of them include the fact that it takes time just to get started. So I don't have a print studio. It's not something I can easily sit down and do for sort of 15 minutes between other tasks. I have to get all the materials out. I haven't got anywhere where I can just sit and work. I have to spend time on the design and then obviously go through the process of carving and printing. And that space that I used to use for making things. has become this podcast recording space. So it's not quite as straightforward as it used to be just to go in and do some printmaking. So I know that's one of the reasons that I keep putting it off. But the biggest reason of all that I keep coming back to is the question about what else I could or should be doing with that time. Because like most people, I'm sure you're the same. You've got lots of different things competing for your attention. In my case, I've got client work that needs doing because that's what earns my money. I've got a business that I'm trying to develop. And I know if I want those things to grow, I have to put the time and effort into them. Obviously I've got the podcast, which I really love doing, but it takes up such a surprising amount of time to research these episodes, to record them, then to edit them and to schedule them and then to do all the social media and the newsletter around that and trying to promote the podcast episodes and share the learning. with you guys, which I'm grateful that you're here for, thank you. And then there's everything else that comes with everyday life. I want to spend time with my family. I want to be available to my daughter whenever she needs me. There's meals to cook, there's housework to do, there's dogs to walk. And I also really want to look after my health and fitness. I have spent many years neglecting myself, I guess, because I've had a poor diet and my exercise is hit and miss. I'm all in or nothing and very up and down and all over the place. So I'd really like to get into a good routine and make sure that I'm eating much better than I have been. And I want to spend time with friends. I want to socialize. I want to make memories with my family and my friends, but I also need to have some time to myself. I need that kind of recharging alone time too. So when I look at all of those things, and the hours that I'd like to spend on each of them, they just don't all fit into a week. There doesn't seem to be enough hours and no matter what kind of puzzle I come up with, it just doesn't seem to work out. So then when I'm deciding what I need to prioritise, of course I tend to choose the things that either need doing, like the client work, the cooking, the walking the dogs, or that might lead to something in the future, like developing the business. Those things will always take priority over me spending a couple of hours on my own making linocut and printing. The client work ends the money, working on the business might create new opportunities. Recording this podcast is helping me build something that I hope will continue to grow and connecting with you and being able to hopefully inspire and uplift people all around the world by telling other ladies stories. So spending an afternoon making prints is so hard to justify. And on top of that, I then think, what am I actually going to do with those prints? Because I don't have a business in terms of printmaking, so I'm not really planning on selling them. I definitely don't need more pictures to put on the wall in our house. So I find myself then thinking, what's the point? Which is a really strange thing to ask. when I have just spent several minutes telling you how much I love doing this thing. So why does there even need to be a point beyond the fact that I love it and I enjoy it and it's creative and it fills my soul and it makes me feel so happy and uplifted? I don't sit down to watch a film and expect to have something to sell at the end of it. I don't go for a walk with a friend and wonder whether I've achieved enough to justify the time that we've spent walking and talking. But when it comes to making something for me, something that I enjoy, I seem to feel that it should serve some kind of purpose. And I think part of that comes from the way I consider my time. Even when I have finished my paid work for the day, There's usually something I could do to move one of my other projects forwards. I could write another article about the podcast. I could work on the website for Hydra Strong. I could plan some content for Instagram or prepare the next podcast episode. And because those things might eventually help me earn more money or create new opportunities, they naturally feel like a better use of my time. But I've been questioning that lately because I talk about it all the time. I'm constantly striving, looking for ways to make my days and my weeks feel happier and more joyful. and to fill my life with things that really light me up and I find uplifting and inspiring. And I would love to find a way to make a living doing something creative. And I can hear the irony in what I'm saying because I have had some incredible podcast guests who have done just this. They have realized exactly what I'm saying and they have been brave and courageous enough to make it happen for them. So I'm wondering, why do I keep putting this off? I don't need to know. whether printmaking could become a career for me, I might just discover that I love making prints myself and wouldn't actually enjoy having to produce them to order or to meet deadlines or to worry about whether anybody else even liked them or wanted to buy them. Or I might find by printmaking that there's a way to bring more creativity into my world without having to turn it into a business and it might just give me that balance in my week that tilts the scales. to my life feeling happier and more fulfilled. I genuinely don't know, I'm just waffling, getting these thoughts out of my head. But what I have recognised is that I am definitely not giving myself the opportunity to explore any of those possibilities with something that I know, I already know that I love doing if I never give myself the time to do it. And so that takes me nicely back, I guess, to the phrase I started with. Easy to do is easy to put off. Printmaking itself isn't necessarily easy. It takes time, it takes concentration, it takes preparation. But putting it off is incredibly easy because there's no deadline and nobody is expecting me to produce a print for them by Friday. And nothing bad is going to happen if I don't do any printmaking this week. And if I don't do it next week either, that's fine too. But I know now that 10 months have passed this year and I don't even remember the last time I made some prints in 2025 either. So months and months have literally passed and I have spent no time doing something that I know makes me happy. How crazy is that? And I wonder how many other things we do that with in our lives. It might be something creative but it doesn't have to be. Perhaps there's a place that you have been meaning to visit. or a friend that you have been wanting to catch up with, or a class that you thought you might join, or something else, something new that you'd like to learn. If you keep thinking that you will get around to it when things are a bit quieter, or when you've got more time, please take this as a reminder that that might not happen. And maybe we need to ask ourselves some bigger questions about what we can change. or why we aren't giving ourselves that space, that time, that opportunity. The things that need doing are going to continue to need doing. Of course, there's always going to be another responsibility or something else that is demanding our attention. And it's so easy for us to find that we are dealing with what's immediately in front of us. and they're never getting around to the things that we keep saying that we would really like to do. Now I know we can't just go find an extra few hours in our week through maybe organising ourselves a little bit better and that's not what I'm trying to say. I have tried so many different productivity hacks and tips and advice and methods and processes. I know that there is a limit to how much you can fit into a day and For me, I don't want to turn printmaking into another thing on my to-do list that I feel obliged to do. The last thing I want to do is to take something that I genuinely love and enjoy and make myself feel guilty for not doing enough of it. But on reflection, I do think I need to reconsider how I decide what is worth spending my time on. At the moment, I seem to give quite a lot of weight to something if it's productive. if it earns money, if it might lead to an opportunity. And perhaps what I have been overlooking is the value of doing something simply because it makes me happy. And I can't believe I'm recording a whole podcast episode of this when it is exactly the thing that I've been talking about for the last 30 odd episodes. It seems ridiculous, I know, but these are my reflections this week. I want to give myself the chance to explore what I want the next stage of my working life to look like. I talk about that a lot and I've been trying to encourage anybody who's listening to this now to do the same through the past episodes, through past conversations. And I know that I sound hypocritical and I also know that if I am serious about wanting to spend less time at a desk, and more time doing things with my hands, moving around, being creative, I have to give myself the opportunity to try things that are creative, that involve me moving away from my desk. And I need to do that. And for me, who's always trying to monetize everything, I need to do that without a business plan. without an expectation that it can lead to a business, but just to see what I enjoy, maybe to discover something that I'm actually good at and something that I might want to pursue. Being around these incredible, incredible creative people on my course who I'm so grateful to have met has reminded me how enjoyable the processes of being creative and exploring your creative practice can actually be. I've had a go at writing poetry, I'm trying different types of writing and I have been so inspired by seeing what other people are making and I know I want to give myself more time to do that. I don't know how I'm going to make it work, I will still have all the same responsibilities and of course the podcast is still going to exist and is still exploring creativity too but I'm starting to think that if something really does matter to me and it feels like it's been there and it won't go away. I need to give it some attention even if there isn't an obvious reward at the end of it because actually the reward is for me and I don't want to wait until I finished everything else because I know there is always going to be something else. So that's what I've been thinking about this week. I would love you to think about whether there is something that you too have been putting off and that's not a job or another responsibility or something that you feel you ought to deal with. but something that you would actually really like to do? Is there something that interests you, that makes you happy, or that gives you a sense of enjoyment that you don't necessarily get from other things that are filling your day? What is it that keeps pushing that thing down your to-do list? Is it genuinely difficult to find the time? Or do you sometimes feel that perhaps you should be spending your time on something more useful? And if you have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to do it, how long have you been waiting? And how much longer are you willing to wait before you take that step and let yourself do the thing that you really want to do? I've realised that I don't want to keep postponing the things that I enjoy simply because there's no monetary benefit from doing them. I know I feel happier when I am making things. I enjoy the process. I get completely absorbed in what I'm doing and I come away feeling really good about what I've achieved or created or even just the process. And I know that I would like to find a way to have more of that in my life, but I obviously have no idea how to make that happen just yet. Please, if you connect with this, I urge you, I encourage you, please explore what's stopping you doing something you love and see if you too can find a way to fit something that you love into your days, into your weeks and see how you feel when you make that happen. Thank you for spending some time with me today and listening to this week's slightly unusual podcast episode. I would love to hear whether there is something that you have been meaning to make more time for, particularly if it is something that you really love, that you really enjoy, and you find difficult to prioritize. And if you would like to follow along as I explore these ideas further, you are welcome to join my newsletter where I share more about the things I'm learning, that I'm trying and that I'm thinking about through the purposeful shift. Thank you again for listening. I wish you lovely day and I will speak to you again soon.