Time Management

Hope we all can manage our time wisely ;)...

I have a big, fluid, flowchart on the wall. I use a combination of index cards, sticky-notes, and push pins so I can make schedule changes on-the-fly. On Sunday afternoon, I post a list of things that MUST BE COMPLETED within the week, and tick those off as I go. Everything else is flex.

It's a great system, personally tailored for the way my mind works. :-)

When I was working full-time, I actually got much more done artisically. You know, as the saying goes, if you want something done give it to a busy person. Now that I'm retired, I fritter away a lot of time and only knuckle down when the mood strikes me. I can't make this into a "job" or I'll start to hate it. All I can say is, if you are really driven to create, you'll find the time to do it.

I'm a list maker. I don't set aside time to create, but I try to be efficient in all my responsibilities so that I wind up with time to create. I can't make anything worthwhile if I have loose ends on other chores/projects. I am a creature of habit, I do certain tasks on certain days with a reasonable amount of flexibility in there. I like knowing if I bust ass in the mornings I'll have afternoons to create.

Right now I am working full time at the hospital and going to school full time to get my Bachelors in Fine Art. It has been a juggling act for sure. I have a drawing that I have been working on in between homework lol. It's hard because I am not in any actual art classes yet so I have to make the time to create. I am managing but definitely know the "to many balls in the air" feeling.

My problem isn't so much time management as "Me" management. I am sorely lacking in the self discipline department.

Great comments so far. Thanks for the reminder, Patricia and Shana - my very best semester of college was the one when I worked and took more units than any other but managed to get my highest GPA. It is true that having a routine will force you to use the left over time wisely. But with creative tasks like writing and artwork, there needs to be inspiration and the time can't be measured easily as one story will write it self and another will take gobs of research.

I definitely hard-schedule 'research time'. I like to have as much info in my head as possible, long before getting to the writing phase. Gives things time to percolate . . . or blow up, depending. ;-)

Seems like time has been managing me lately. I bet I haven't taken ANY photos in a month! I usually decide on what gets done (or doesn't) and when but that prerogative is being overridden by events not wholly within my control. I hate that when that happens! Looking forward to calling the shots again in the not too distant future. In the meantime while I'm working my way back to my old hedonistic self, I do make time to acknowledge and appreciate the little blessings that make each day a gift.

I feel the same pressure Nancy. I love the suggestions by Wendy.

With a full time job, a few studios, a water color, an oil, an acrylic on canvas, all studios with projects ongoing, and customers...
plus the many family obligations that I don't tend to meet, I'm a very busy person. But life is for living. It either all works out or it doesn't.

"...I use a combination of index cards, sticky-notes, and push pins so I can make schedule changes on-the-fly..."


My kind of system, and used one similar to it for years when I was working. Now that I'm retired, I still have sticky-notes stuck all over the front of my computer desk. 23 as I recall last count :)

I don't have time to do much of anything anymore. Dead-end job takes all my energy and injures me besides. It's an effing miracle if I find any time to work on art.

It helps if you can function on 4 - 5 hours of sleep

Robert is probably right! You can still get all the sleep you need, the way to do that is to have a good exercise plan and know your biorhythms. If you are a morning person your best thinking time is early morning up to 12:00 pm then memory and ideas for creativity starts to fade quickly. Although it is possible to be creative until 2 pm.

When you have a day job and a morning person it is almost impossible to start a project when you get home, it's too late for creative thinking and is your down time. The best time for creativity with a day job is early morning, a couple of hours before you go to work which means getting to bed early and no late night TV!

On your days off the morning is still the best time for doing your artwork if you wait til late in the day, it won't happen! If you are a night person your best thinking time starts at 9:00 pm.

Sheesh I know all about time management running my own site, art business, working here and trying to have a family life.

Robert is correct... Just get less sleep ... Works for me ....rofl

lol.. its all about passion... i give everything in the day 100% so at the end of the day i pass out.... but after 4 hours of sleep.... i am jumping out of bed to do it more and better . and do not undersestimate nutrition .. you need to fuel the body with theright stuff or else 4 hours of sleep wont cut it .. have a blessed day

Bob

right now this is my job, but i try to just pace myself, and work steady. if your at work, think about what you want to make next. make a sketch at lunch and work when you get home. one shouldn't cut out on sleep because the creativity will suffer. i know i was pretty grumpy when i had to wake up at 5:30am each morning to get ready and all.

then there is speed - is there a way to produce whatever you do quickly? my goals for every image is:

1. do it better or at least as good.
2. do get it done faster. so far i've sped up quite a bit. too bad my attention span is limited...


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

I can feel your pain! In a lot of ways, I have a "full time job" and then I have my POD stores. The full time job is as a licensed artist working with an art agency and our clients. That entails constantly researching trends, working through ideas and then creating new art work. Once that's done then there are the portfolio sheets and product mockups, Then there is the cleaning up the art files and preparing them for manufacturer's use and uploading them to my agency. Rinse and repeat.

In between all of that I have stores that I have to create new product lines for, do the maintenance and social marketing required to be successful online and often times create art or graphic designs that I wouldn't use for licensing but would sell well in a POD world.

No matter how hard I work it's like having triplets - I can only attend to one at a time and there's always two screaming at me for attention. When you figure out the time management secret will you promise to share it with me?!!! LOL!

What I do is have months blocked out for the main focus (ie licensing development or POD) those months the larger portion of my time will be devoted to ongoing projects there with maybe 30% of my time going to the other side of the business. I tend to do my repetitive, boring but important tasks first thing in the morning while my brain isn't at full functioning level yet. That insures they get done because once I start creating all bets are off. My inner child rebels against any restraints on her play time.

The most difficult times are the following through to completion on a design. If it isn't to my agents it might as well not exist. If it hasn't been properly mocked up a manufacturer might miss that it would work for their particular type of product. If it hasn't been turned into products at the right POD it won't sell. So doing the boring stuff is what makes the difference between being successful or unsuccessful in this world. Hope something there is helpful

JeezA Louise Audrey - sounds like you need 48 hours in a day!

Nancy this is a great topic. I personally create whenever I can. I think sometimes the most exciting work comes out of those who do have a bunch of "balls in the air", and as a result don't have a lot of time to second guess or waste their precious time. I do however think that like writers who become inspired to write entire chapters in one setting so do various artists. When a person is inspired, they need access to their tools of trade and get working. That is when the unique and beautiful emerges as if from nowhere.

Kristalin

Robert Newman41 Minutes Ago
JeezA Louise Audrey - sounds like you need 48 hours in a day!
LOL! Agreed... or to be able to twitch my nose like Samantha on Bewitched and stop time! Am I giving away my age... ;-)

Great comments.
I have a folder of ideas that I just need time to execute, and then there are at least a half dozen pieces I started and have not finished since I am the type that needs to step away from a piece before calling it finished. And that is in addition to the creative pieces I do for the day job. What really keeps me going is all the creative energy, though. I teach 2 high school classes in the art department, and do the graphics for the same private school with an insane marketing budget, in addition to 3 freelance clients that I have hung onto from the days when I solely freelanced (luckily, two are really low volume). I find the balance between me giving away ideas and me getting to execute my own ideas into finished products is what I need. However, a few less hours sleep AND a few more hours in each day would really help out about now.

for me...this whole weekend is hitting those TO DO folders...there is really no leaving the house until sometime monday

I only work 65 plus hours per week. I have plenty of down time.

I create blocks of time. I then set priorities within those blocks. Isn't that what any business owner does when
they hire you? You work 9 to 5. After that we and you figure out what matters in your job.

I block off roughly 8 am to 2 pm to market my art. I make art in between. Then I goof off between 2 pm and 4:30 pm.
Then I work between 4:30 pm and 10 pm. Rinse and repeat. Now that might sound dull, but I have a great time.

My play time 2 to 4 pm before driving to work, I window shop for women at a local Starbuck. The waitresses at work
are far too young. Mostly in college. The chef yesterday who is 45 years old said, "if only I was twenty years younger".
My retort was, "I am in my fifties. Now I have to say, if only I was 30 years younger". Made him sick to think of how the time
is passing. lol

Addition 6 morning hours plus 5 night time hours is 11 hours per day. Seven days per week, 77 hours. Minus two nights I do not work....67 hours.

But I often go to 3 pm on the art and get less time in window shopping.

Dave

oh, Dave...
They have free wifi in Banana Republic stores and make a huge deal of advertising that. Maybe they want me to hunker down with my laptop and work... or maybe it is so you can shop for women who are shopping while still working - hmm?