Behaviour change

The gifts are made and the party is over. It is time to get back to work. I haven't pursued art quilting with any vigour in seven to eight months. I suddenly am interested again and ready to do some serious work. I'm not sure why I feel the urgency right now - perhaps it is the brush with mortality, or the advent of a new year, or a looming deadline for a show I must enter.  

I want to take advantage of the motivation I feel now to make a permanent change in my behaviour. In the fitness/wellness industry it is well known that behaviour changes as soon as you start to monitor it. For example, once you are asked to keep a food diary you start to edit the choices you make every day. If you wear a Fitbit or similar device your daily step count increases simply because you can observe a number.

I have decided to take a measure/monitor approach. The only realistic metric is 'time spent'. So today I started the timer on my iPad and turned it off each time I was interrupted. I intend to keep a record of my daily investment of time. I am sure that just knowing the timer is running will change my behaviour and cause me to focus more intensely on the work at hand. In a few months I will also have developed the habit of incorporating that work into my days.  

At 2:30 am this morning I got up and drafted a design for an idea that has been niggling me, related to the 'Structures' show. This morning I had to go to Staples to pick up an order so I had them enlarge it for me, just to 18x18 for now. I will probably make several and then toss the pattern and use what I have learned to do a final piece. 

At home I began the construction. My time total includes some research I did on construction methods, transfer of the pattern to my working materials and some piecing.

Time = 2 hrs, 35 min