Down time

Within the past year I got a chance to hear one of my all-time favorite illustrators, Melissa Sweet, talk about her work. One thing she talked about was the importance of 'down time' -- the time during your day when you're not actually working on your project, but take the time to flip through a magazine, read a book, look at other artists' work, etc. and how these types of activities go a long way toward 're-energizing your batteries' and providing inspiration for future work. Makes sense, right? But I find that although I completely agree with Melissa in theory, it sure is hard to put that theory into practice! Whenever I try to take time out of my day for just such a thing, (well, other than running the usual errands) I always quickly end up feeling guilty that it's daytime and I'm not "working." Especially when a deadline is looming, but even on slower days when I'm trying to create something new, too, where there isn't the same kind of pressure on. I guess I'm still getting used to the idea of the life of the freelancer -- it's hard to break out of that '9 to 5' mold.