If design is not your full time job, most likely something else is. And when do you find time to do it?

I have to say for me that time is often at night after everyone has gone to bed. Or in the morning before the kids wake up if I’m lucky. And apparently I am not alone.

I recently talked to a photographer named Scott of http://scottmylerphotography.com/ that said he sometimes only gets 3 hours of sleep when he is up designing. Another friend who has a web design business says she often stays up, too.

One thing is sure, and that is that I am much happier if I can get some creative time in each day. I have noticed that my oldest daughter is the same way, so we are going to start doing that more regularly.

One of our favorite things to do together is to take a portable watercolor paint set and mini watercolor paper pad outside with a plastic cup of water and go to town. I think the set was about $7 at Hobby Lobby and the paper was $3 for a set of three tiny 3×4″ or so watercolor paper pads. Actually I like the small size because I don’t feel intimidated by having to take time to fill an entire 9×11 sheet. With the small paper I can make something creative in 10 minutes! I think that is also why I like making logos. I can be highly focused on a small little thing without feeling overwhelmed.

How about you? When do you find time to be creative? How do you balance with everything else? Are there little tiny moments you could snap up as creative time with your family?

“Let’s do a gradient here, throw in a drop shadow, blur the background, do a neon glow on the font, and make everything beveled!”

Oh no! That’s a recipe for disaster! Sometimes all you need is one color and a pen tool to make everything work. The hardest task of all is knowing when to use which tool to create the visual effect (and the corresponding emotional effect) that is desired for a particular purpose.

That is the art of restraint.