5 Surefire Ways to Supercharge Your Sewing Productivity | Boost up your time to sew!

I am a fan of productivity aside from quilting. Want to sew more or make more quilts? Read on the 5 productivity hacks I have in this post to finding more time to sew.

Beside browsing for all the quilting inspiration, I also love browsing and reading more about productivity.  Mostly these are Youtube videos, listening to audible while I sew and reading books. 

There are affiliate link within this post for your convenience. I receive a small commission when you purchase using the links that helps me run the blog. You can read the disclosure policy for more info. 

My recent reads are:

• Free to Focus by Michael Hyatt
• Do it Scared by Ruth Soukup

If I don’t have time to sit and sew, I will surely use audible. I can do this while doing the dishes or even when I sew.

[Check out audible HERE> you can get TWO free books to start with]

If you have not yet known me, I have a full time job, two little one, a blog to run and sooooo many quilts to sew (just because I like to quilt). Thus, it is essential that I got my time managed and productivity in check. 

I am still learning to increase my productivity while having so much fun with it, but I thought in this post I’ll share what I have learned so far and what seems to work best. You may find these helpful and might want to try it too. 

But if you are struggling to find time to do the things that you love – sewing, crafting or whatever you please: you are going to love it. 

Hacking Productivity – Do more of what you love, finding more time to sew! (or what ever you love to do more of)

1. Have a goal

I am a goal-oriented person. But not until recently that I have been able to really set goals that really is something that I want to do for myself. 

It is easy to get caught in the busy life of responsibilities, daily chores and things that don’t matter much (like watching mindless tv shows). Have a goal to do more of what you love. For me, sewing and quilting is my creative space, that allows me to be me, and enjoy some ‘me time’. I love sewing and I wish I could do more of it. 

If you set goal to have 1 quilt done each month, you are more likely to do it.  Pair it up with some accountability (tip no. 3) by joining in groups like a quarter finish-a-long which is fun and will make you set goals while having some accountability!

2. Get organized

Tidy Up Your Space

Tidy after you work. I may not tidy my sewing space every single day, but more often than not, I will make sure the space is cleared up after a project. I may also find that I will tidy up sometimes in the midst of a project if I find my motivation to continue the project is going down. Most of the time by tidying up the space, I find that the motivation comes back!

Have everything in its home whenever you are tidying up . Make sure your space are easy to tidy : meaning everything has already its own designated place to sit. Most of the time, it is often hard to tidy up because there are no specific place for the items that are in the mess. Work in progress should also have a designated place so that you don’t have all of them bunched up on the table at one time.

For ideas how to organize your sewing space – check out this post. 

If you are up for a decluttering or a revamp of your space – check out this post. Decluttering will also help you manage your space better
and will increase your productivity!

Schedule it!

Schedule your sewing time. If you have a busy life like mine, it may be so easy to always think that you can only sew in your spare time. Spare time? Time has to be managed well, if you schedule you ‘spare time’, you’ll definitely going to have it. It has been spared in advanced if you schedule it.  

I personally love paper planners. And currently I am using the Erin Condren Life Planner.

I love the layout, the size and how beautiful they are. I also use it to do a little more creative things in there like using colours, handlettering and stickers. 

Another option to EC Life Planner which you can customize your own HERE> and get $10 off,

you can also get a non-customized but also beautiful planners like the Happy Planners:

3. Have an accountability

I love setting myself up with accountability. It usually drives myself to actually to do things even when I don’t feel like it. And usually at the end of the day, I am glad I did it. 

Blogging / Journalling

I sew a lot more when I blog. This blog is my accountability. I love being able to share it with the world. There is a sense of urge whenever I think about posting a finished quilt.

The blog is also a sort of journal, where my work in progress are tracked. I am more inspired to sew or be reminded to work on a certain project whenever I scroll back the blogpost. 

If you are interested to create a blog for yourself, read this post HERE>. 

Community-based work along 

I sew a lot more when I am joining a quilt-along. While too many of it wouldn’t be helpful. Joining some of them and keeping up with the one you join will make you more productive.

I have joined a couple of sew-along before. While I missed the bandwagon on some, most of them got done a lot during the quilt-along. So it is definitely the drive that makes me want to sew more and enjoy the community too!

Just make sure you are active in the group and that will make you more accountable. 

4. Make use of small amount of time : small amount of time to sew counts!

I make use of this a lot. 

I make use of the small 5 minutes in the morning while waiting for my kids to have breakfast to sew a few rows.  This is the thing about patchwork – I can sew bit here and there, and in the end, I have a full quilt!

If you set in your mind what can you achieve in 5-10 minutes, you are more likely to do it whenever you have that amount of time. 

For example, if you decide to do a quick clean-up everytime you have 5-10 minutes to wait for someone or something. Everytime you have that time coming around, you will be more likely to do a quick clean up. This is because you ave already set it in your mind. If you don’t, you will then need time to do some decision making process -which in itself take around the same time and usually we end up not doing anything and just simply wait. 

You can read more about how I am able to sew in those short time  HERE>

5.  Pair Up boring things with Fun!

Sometimes, things just have to get done!

Like a dinner has to be on the table, no matter how much you fell like you just want to sit and sew. LOL.

or when dishes is just piling up and need to be done. 

These things if not done, may affect your productivity in areas that you want to be, as these are just daily necessities. So we need to tackle them and get them out of the way. 

I usually pair all this boring things (to me it’s boring), with something I love too. For example, I pair up washing dishes while watching something fun on Youtube. I like  watching Pat’s Fireside talk – I can learn a few things from Pat while doing the dishes. This also inspires me to do more sewing later. 

Other than that, I can also what short tutorial videos from Creative Bug or Bluprint. Write down the things you want to learn somewhere, and come back to that whenever you want to pair it with something boring to dos. 

You can also pair up relaxing repetitive task like pressing hundreds of small blocks while watching tutorials too!

Well, that is is for this post! 

I have still a lot to learn about productivity and always interested to find more time to sew. So, chime in what are your secrets too by commenting down below.