You’re reading the Ten Minute Visual Journal Method.
And this is Day 4, If you’re new to all this start at Day 1
If you’ve been following along, you’re now more interested, more interesting and more energised about your work, and today we’re going to think about how to answer the next question.
“What’s coming up?”
At the most basic level this question will prompt you to take a look at your calendar and draw an upcoming event. This could be a meeting you’re looking forward to, a place you’re looking forward to going to, something that’s coming in the mail.
These are all great things to draw for this question, bringing a piece of the future into the present. When you draw it, you’re declaring on paper that it’s already done. You can start enjoying it in some measure now.
This ability to enjoy the future in the present is a wonderful vitamin to your daily life.
You could also take a different approch.
You can use this sections to explore what you might want to happen. The image you create based on your calendar, and the image you create from your imagination or both possible futures.
Both have not happened yet, both could happen.
What’s coming up can be a question about what you are expecting and it could just as likely be a question about the kind of future you want to create for yourself.
You could draw date night in that panel before asking someone for a date.
Or draw an adventure you’ve been meaning to have before actually making any concrete plans.
Both work, embrace the future with flexibility. It makes me think of the Odyssey Plan is a Stanford Life Design Lab tool for creating three distinct, alternative five-year future paths.
Use this space to poke holes into different possible futures, a mini daily Odyssey Plan.
Time to Draw!
Yes by now you’re figuring out that this practice uses the past present and future to triangulate your present moment. It is an exercise in deep presence. You just spend ten minutes but you can dig into the past, explore different futures and even experience the fruits of your labour in advance.
You can pack a lot into ten minutes, and with practice you’ll be able to load even more!
And I’ll see you in Day 5, for the final piece and a plan for beyond these 5 days.
PS: The Check-ins
Each day we’ll explore one of the questions in a little more depth as we try to layer more and more potency into your ten minutes of practice. I’ll also send it to you once a day over the next 4 days.
Day 1: The Visual Journal Method (this)
Day 2: Time as a Filter — learn to filter and pick your moments of interest.
Day 3: Present Focus — all work is aspirational
Day 4: Vision — vision drives reality
Day 5: Gratitude — your most creative state
Ten Minute Artist gives you a Gameplan to build a lifelong creative habit and attract your true fans - I’m also involved in these two other substacks:
Art Gym with Katie Stack is a monthly skill building workshop with a huge library
Art Quest with Jen Gubicza