Now is the time to create something and share it with the world!

I’ll be honest, I’m not feeling 100% confident writing this article. It’s been a while since I wrote any articles on Icon Utopia. For past couple of years, I was almost exclusively publishing my “Best Icons of the Month” series, and truth be told, I wasn’t too consistent with that either.

If you’re one of the OG’s who’s here from the beginning, you might remember that sometime ago I used to write on a weekly basis. As time went by, I got swamped with work and other projects, so eventually I started publishing less and less. Nevertheless, I never forgot about Icon Utopia – it’s my passion project and I was constantly beating myself for not making enough time to work on it.

But guess what, nowadays, when most of us spend significantly more time at home, I was finally able to sit down and write.
I was looking for the ways to make the most out of this additional time I have on my hands, and I wanted encourage you to use this time to either learn something new or start an exciting side project.

Perfect opportunity to create something

This might be a perfect opportunity for starting a side hustle or reviving an old one. Like I’m doing with Icon Utopia! So I want to invite you to join me and agree to spend at least a bit more time on that project or idea that you have been postponing for ages. It’s a perfect time to create something and share it with the world. Only you know what it is: a drawing, an icon set, maybe an article you wanted to write or a video to shoot, or maybe you’ve always wanted to start a blog or a company!

Creating something new and going public with it is definitely not an easy task. If you’re not used to being consistent with making and sharing your works, it might be difficult for you to start. I remember how nervous and anxious I used to be every time I had to publish a new piece of work. I felt like I was releasing one of my children into the world. How will it be perceived by others? Will they like it or will it be ignored? Is it even good enough?! I stumbled upon doubts like these, and way too often they kept me from sharing my work. And as I mentioned before, I’m feeling the same right now when writing this article.

To make it less scary, you have to make time in your schedule to create and share something more often. Creating might feel like a spontaneous moment, a stretch of imagination, but the truth is, even the most creative process needs at least some organisation.

Have you noticed how I wrote ‘making’ time and not ‘finding’ it? Nobody has time for anything other than what they are doing right now. In order to do something, you have to make time for it. People by default tend to fill every single spare minute with some kind of activity. Can you remember the last time you were waiting in line, say, in a bank and didn’t take out you phone? If we have a spare minute, we always fill it up with something.

That’s why instead of trying to find time when you don’t have any, you have to proactively set some of it aside every day specifically for creating and sharing your work. How do you make time? You remove something that is not as important in your life, and do something that will help you to achieve what you want instead.

Everyone is guilty (myself included) of binge watching a TV series, drinking beer in the evening with your buddies, sleeping way too long at the weekends. There is nothing wrong with it, you have to relax. But do you really need to watch an episode of a TV show every single evening after work? Do you really need that extra hour of sleep on a Sunday?

Over these couple of years, I’ve talked with multiple people about creating and sharing work more often and a lot of times I was getting the same answer: “Oh, I don’t have that much time, I have a full-time job and a lot of responsibilities”. Yeah, you do. Everyone does. But somehow you have time to watch an episode of your favourite TV show every evening.

Let’s admit it, now you probably have more spare time than couple of months ago. Use it wisely, invest into your side hustle or get better at something instead of binge-watching another Netflix series. You never know what creating and sharing a new project could bring you!

And if that’s not enough, people these days are looking for content to consume more than ever. With a lot of spare time on our hands, we’re looking where to put our attention to. Anything you create now might have a better chance to reach a bigger audience than it would just a couple of months ago.

It would mean a world to me if this article inspired you to take some action. So if you decide to create and share something, feel free to message me on instagram @iconutopia or simply by adding a hashtag #iconutopia. I would love to see what you’ll come up with!