Last year my friend and colleague Marcella de Tapia shared Henry Miller’s Work Schedule from 1932 with me, and we decided to take this as a prompt to create our own Work Schedule.

Work Schedule
December 2021- December 2022
For Elizabeth Shepley

COMMANDMENTS

• Write first everyday, even if it sucks, even if it feels like there’s no time.
• Use prompts and reminders.
• Read your work, and give yourself Gateless feedback while looking in the mirror.
• Share a piece of work every week on your blog.
• Engage often in real-time creativity conversations.
• Delight yourself.
• Find a stage and perform there.
• Tell people you’re a creative life coach and expert encouragement generator.
• Keep showing up.
• Be gentle and move in loving ways that include showing love to yourself.
• Let it be easy.
• Shine your light and embrace your shadow.

It’s October 2022, and this agreement floated through my headspace. I opened the document to see how it is going for me. For the most part, I’m living this schedule. Blogging hasn’t been weekly, but writing has. I feel renewed in my commitment to share more. I haven’t performed on a stage yet, but there’s still time. I’m reading my work more often. That mirror work is no joke, and I am certain that past me was onto something with that prescription. I just offered this practice to someone last week as a means to shower herself with loving kindness and witness, and here it is again as a practice for me. This becomes a priority today.

What sort of commandments would you write for your creative life? What schedule would you offer? Adjust the timeline for your own rhythm. Set the intention. Revisit it periodically. Let me know how it goes, if it feels right. You might drop a line in the comments, send me a private email or book a curiosity call.