April was a month out of routine for me. Teaching terms had ended, and I actually even took some holiday! Then I jumped straight into rehearsals for Have You Met Stan, and so I only returned to my creative tasks in their regular format last week.

I realised I had no idea what I wanted to use that time for, which was strange. On Monday, I did a dance class. It was great but I picked a style well out of my comfort zone, and it was properly challenging. Still, we all know you don't grow if you spend too long in the comfort zone.

For inspiration to get creative in the rest of the week, I turned to my ideas list. We've all got one, right? That bank of stuff that you'd love to develop, but never quite find the time. Well, here was the time waiting to be filled. I picked out a play that's been rolling around in the back of my brain for several years, which brings in my love of rural communities, inter-generational support networks, and some lovely local history. It's a play that makes a good statement about my artistic brand, and it's been really nice to flesh it out a bit and discover the full plot, rather than just some fleeting mental pictures.

I suspect it will take a very long time for the work to come to fruition, but that's okay. It can keep ticking over in the background and crucially, I will enjoy dipping back into it whenever I need to inject some creativity into my workload. Working on it this week felt like a really good use of the creative tasks because there's no fixed deadline on it - so no pressure - but it complements my artistic practice, which meant it felt like meaningful work.