Project Mise en Place

One of the challenging things about being a parent who works full time is the very limited free time for hobbies. The exhaustion fog started lifting around the two year old mark, and we started feeling more rested and interested in our hobbies again, but the free time hasn’t changed much.

Now at the three and a half mark, I feel like I’ve found a way to make the most of the free time I do have. Here’s my method:

Set up a dedicated space where you can go and make meaningful progress right away without having to set it up.

I spent a lot of time rebuilding the inside of my workshop this year to make it a useable space where I didn’t have to spend the first 20 minutes looking for tools and moving things around.

I dedicated a corner of my office for a dedicated fly tying desk in November, because getting the vise and materials all set up at the dining room table each time I wanted to tie was enough of a barrier to keep me from doing it some evenings.

Amanda recently re-did her office space, too. She put in shelving, storage, and a large, counter-height crafting table where she can leave in-progress projects set up without worrying about Charlie getting to them.

We both feel very fortunate to have the space to do this. Even though our house is small and the shed is small, we’re using the space to the best of our ability.

Organize and clean

Organizing things minimizes the amount of time spent searching for that thing you need to work on a project. It is nice to know exactly where to look for a tool or a material, and have them easily accessible. Nothing is more frustrating than spending valuable time searching through boxes.

For my tools, I use French cleats. Everything has its place.

For fly tying, I have a thread organizer and I put my hooks and beads in a binder with baseball card pages, sorted by size. Feathers are in a large zipper pouch, and my tool are in their caddy.

When I don’t have enough time to work on a project, but I do have 15 or 20 minutes, I’ll spend that time cleaning and organizing my spaces.

Always have something ready to do

Woodworking and fly tying are, for me, sometimes more about the process than the outcome. The act of working on something is recharging for me, so to get out of a funk I just need to get to work, whether or not I want to. The mental overhead of having to first decide what to do is sometimes enough of a barrier to keep me from doing it, especially if I have a limited time window.

For woodworking, I try to have some materials prepped and ready to go for a few small projects at all times. Right now I have four bowl blanks and a platter blank ready to turn on the lathe, and two handles for tools ready to turn.

For fly tying, I keep a list of flies I want to tie next, along with recipes. I also sometimes set out and prep the materials for the next pattern (example: 8 hooks with the beads already on them, the dubbing material, the thread, 8 pre-selected feathers, 8 sections of wire).

When I have a spare 15 or 20 minutes, not enough time for a project but I want to do something, I’ll get materials together for my next project.

How do you make the most of your limited hobby time? I want to learn from you! Let me know in the comments.