How To Manage Your Time As An Artist
Are you finding it challenging to accomplish everything you need to get done relating to selling art?
If you do, you are not alone.
In this post, you will discover how to be a productive artist.
This the second post of a series I am writing that will help you achieve more in less time. Today we will talk about how to plan everything.
Visit What Are Your Priorities? How To Succeed As A Part-time Artist if you missed the first post of this series.
How To Be A Productive Artist – Plan Everything
There is a phrase that I live by, “What gets planned gets done.”
This statement is true in everyday life.
- If you want to call your mother, you must plan for it.
- If you want to eat healthily, you must plan for it.
- If you want to go to the movies, you must plan for it.
- If you want to create more art, you must plan for it.
I learned that over the past fifteen plus years of selling art online, I must set goals and develop a plan to get everything
Learning how to be a productive artist can be done with the tips outlined below.
Set Goals
Before you can plan you must know what you are shooting for.
Setting goals is a simple strategy that is often overlooked.
People who are successful set goals for everything they have achieved in life.
If you want to lose ten pounds, you must set a goal of losing ten pounds.
If you want to sell five pieces of art every month, you have to set a goal to sell five pieces of art every month.
Once you know what you want to achieve you can start to develop a plan that will have you achieve your vision.
Setting goals are difficult for most people and if you do not know how to write realistic, achievable goals you will come up short and become frustrated.
The workbook below will make it easy for you to write your business goals.
Related Resources:
How to Write Goals You Can Achieve Workbook
How to Write Goals Online Video Course
These workbooks, planners, and video courses will help you to create a solid foundation for your art business.
Plan Everything To-do List
Now that you have your goals documented, you are ready to write out your daily to-do lists.
This step will either make you go to bed happy or go to bed frustrated.
If you know what your priorities are, you will be able to make an extensive to-do list for each day.
You will be able to account for every minute, including downtime.
Documenting an extensive to-do list will help you to stay focused on your daily priorities.
Do not rely on your memory, that never works.
Once you document your tasks, you are freeing your mind from preventable stress.
Action Step:
Take a piece of paper or open your favorite to-do list app and start filling every hour.
Start from when you wake up until you go to bed.
Even schedule in your sleep time.
Your list should have everything you will be doing for each hour you are awake.
Drinking coffee, eating lunch, washing dishes, cooking, working, watching television, creating art, social media marketing, blogging, it doesn’t matter what you will be doing. Just write it down.
During the day, review your to-do list every hour.
Over time writing and reviewing your to-do list will become a part of your daily routine.
From that point on, you will be accountable for every minute of your day.
You will soon find that you will accomplish more, and you will have more downtime to relax at the end of the day.
If you want to know how to be a productive artist, you have to plan everything.
Schedule Around Your Creative Time
As the owner of an art business, your main objective is to sell artwork.
Obviously, you will not be able to sell art if you do not create art.
The best way to get more paintings or drawings done is to schedule your marketing tasks around your studio time.
If you do your best work in the morning, block that time out for painting and schedule your art marketing tasks in the afternoon or evening.
It will take a little experimenting to find your rhythm, but once you do stick with it.
Take Advantage Of Organizational Tools
There are many organizational tools available to help you stay on top of your “A” game.
Trello, for example, is one of the most popular organizational tools for work.
The tool allows you to track and visualize your ideas.
Final Thoughts On How To Be A Productive Artist
There is a lot that goes into an artist’s workday. As an artist, you will have to:
- Spend time making art
- Spend time marketing your art
- Give yourself time to relax and spend time with your friends and family
The productivity tips outlined above will help you take control of your days so you can enjoy being an artist.
The next step is to take advantage of the Pomodoro technique.
You might also be interested in:
- Planning Your Day: For the Working Artist
- What Are Your Priorities How to Succeed as a Part-time Artist
- Daily Action Plan Checkoff List
- How to be More Productive Working at Home
- How Tracking Your Time Will Help You Sell More Art
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