Some things I think of when it comes to making time for this fantastic business that is art.
Make it easy to get started. Remove the friction. Have your sketchbook or your pencils or your notebook everywhere, so when that five minutes arises, you can grab whatever is around and just do it.
You can ride the feeling, the momentum, as soon as it presents. Line the space between you and your art making with Teflon. You want to be able to slide on in there with your socks on and make your art.
See creating not as needing big blocks of time but micro moments. My birds often get drawn over the series of many days; before the call, while the boys are occupied for a few minutes, when I’m doing other work and need a break.
Writing also. And if writing and drawing are your bag like they are mine, leave skeletons of the previous sessions all around you to make them easy to continue on with. Bullet points as paragraphs or chapter ideas you want to write. Lightly lined birds, ready for your fine point pen to jump in. Leave your last creating session at a point the future you can easily pick up from.
Find communities that normalize the habit that you most want to do. We aren’t supposed to be doing this alone, but if you’re the only one you know in your life trying to cultivate this habit, then it can very much feel that way.
I have Creating Wild, my community membership, for this reason. We need each other to create the habit of art. To say, you can do this. This is important.
If you find the time for your creating getting squeezed out, create first. Before the phone. Before the emails. Before the other things make demands on your time. I’ve had times of life (co-sleeping or child related) that have made this not possible. But if it is possible for you, then do it.
You’ll prove something to yourself that is life-changing: that this whole creating thing has benefits that far exceed everything you might have originally thought.