We all know that coloring has some pretty awesome benefits to our mental health. It can be a great way to relax, forget the worries of the day by focusing on grabbing your full attention, it can make you feel happier through different colors, and used over a period of time it can even help with depression.

This is all fine and dandy, but what if you can’t find the time to color? If you understand the benefits of adult coloring yet just can’t seem to carve out a little bit of time to color you should know that you are not alone, many people struggle with that very same step. Below you will find the two tips that not only helped us find time to color even with a packed schedule, but eventually even helped us get a grasp over our entire schedule.

Don’t put coloring on a pedestal

Hemingway famously said: “There is nothing to writing. You just sit down at a typewriter and bleed”. I will be first to point out and that it’s not that easy to produce some of the best writing of the 20th century, but Hemingway was definitely onto something.

So many of us try to make our coloring experience perfect. The kids must be in napping or out of the house, I have to have my favorite bottle of wine, my “coloring” music has to be on, and so on and so on. In one way or another we are all guilty of putting coloring on a pedestal and making it into a more special ritual than it has to be.

Instead, take the small wins. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and a coloring design doesn’t have to be colored in one either. Even if you find 5 minutes with which to color in a couple of leaves of that new coloring designs, take those 5 minutes. Do you take public transport to work? It may not be the best time to color in those super detailed areas but why not color in some of the easier spaces? Don’t make coloring more special than it has to be, the most important thing is to just do it.

Put it in your schedule

This is a completely different tactic than the previous tip but different people will find that different things work for them. Instead of just hoping that you find time to color, make it a priority, in your day and actually put it in your schedule. Even if it’s 10 minutes take out your phone or whatever you use to keep track of your schedule, and make it an appointment.

Think of coloring not as just something you do to relax, but something that can help you destress and allow you to actually perform at a higher level. No one creates good work when they are tired, upset, or badly stressed. With this idea in mind coloring isn’t time wasted that you could be working on a work project or doing an important chore, it’s a supplemental activity that will make your work better!

Now make it a recurring event. Coloring shouldn’t be something you do just once in a blue moon, it should be a regular occurrence...you wouldn’t expect to see the benefits of exercise if you just hit the treadmill once a month would you?

Hope you found these two tips helpful and that you will commit to finding just a little bit of time every day, or every other day, to color and experience all the benefits that come with coloring. Have you found another way to fit coloring in your schedule? We would love to hear about it in the comments below.

Happy coloring everyone!