Time Management Strategies For Creative People

Are you becoming frustrated because you feel there is not enough time to create and sell your artwork? 

Are you feeling overwhelmed because you can not finish any art projects?

Time management strategies will not only help you to reach your art business goals, but they will also reduce unnecessary stress in your day to day life. 

As a creative mind, you will have to devote time to creating, but as an artist selling products, you will also have to spend time marketing and promoting your art business.

Creating new paintings, uploading images of your art on your online gallery, sharing your artwork on social media, and conversing with potential buyers are many projects to put on a plate.

You will want to accomplish everything, and you will have good intentions when your day starts, but as the day unravels, it might feel like an impossible task.

It will be challenging to attempt to work on everything with poor planning and time management.  

That is why I have come up with a list of time management strategies that I use daily to help you get more done during the day with less effort.

What Is Time Management

Time management is how one uses their time.

Good time management allows you to accomplish more in a shorter period of time, which leads to more free time, which lets you take advantage of learning opportunities, lowers your stress, and helps you focus, which leads to more career success. Each benefit of time management improves another aspect of your life. (Source: AppointmentPlus)

Lousy time management prevents specific jobs from getting done, which leads to less free time and increased stress.

Effective time management strategies do not only have to be utilized for jobs relating to your art business. They can also be used in your daily life. 

The more productive you are with your daily priorities, the more free time you will be able to enjoy at the end of the day.

As An Artist, Why Should You Care About Managing Your Time

Most artists and crafters are working other jobs to supplement their income.

More times than not, if you want a career in art, you will be working on multiple projects to supplement your income while you are waiting for your original art to sell. 

Learning how to juggle multiple jobs and focus on priorities will help you achieve your art business quicker.

Why Is Time Management Important

Leon Ho explains why time management is important.

• Do more with less
• Make work fulfilling and life meaningful
• End indecisiveness
• Achieve goals faster
• Boost confidence
• Have more energy to achieve more
• Make more time to do the things you love
• Reduce stress and avoid feeling overwhelmed

To learn more visit The Importance Of Time Management: Why It Matters

As I mentioned earlier, many artists work a full-time job or several part-time jobs to supplement their income while trying to build their art business.

Whether you are selling your art on the side or have a career selling art, you know how much time it takes to create art, promote your art, and package and ship the product.

There is a lot that goes into selling art online and offline.

An artist to-do-list consists of:

• Creating art
• Photographing art
• Uploading the artwork on an artist website and social media platforms
• Building relationships with potential buyers
• Blogging
• Sending newsletters
• Answering emails
• Engaging on social media
• Packaging and shipping items
• purchasing supplies
• cleaning supplies
• And the list goes on…

So how can you get everything done while working a different job and still have time to live?

You can do it by becoming more efficient with your time and build better daily habits.

Effective Strategies For Time Management

Learning how to manage time starts with knowing:

• How you are utilizing your time
• How many chores you have per day
• How many hours you are working
• How long it takes to get particular jobs done
• What you would like to accomplish in a day

Once you have a clear picture of your day’s objectives, you will develop time management strategies that will help you get more done in less time.

Begin by writing everything you need to accomplish for the day.

Every day will have different chores, so you will want to get in the habit of doing this daily.

Now that you have everything you need to get done for the day, let’s go over how you can get all of the jobs done.

Prioritize Your Day

Prioritize Your Daily Tasks

The list of things you want to accomplish might seem overwhelming when you first look at it.

The best way to make your list more manageable is to divide the list into smaller chunks.

Prioritizing your list will make it possible for you to focus on only the things that must get done that day. Everything else that you can get done is extra, which will make the next day a little easier.

Prioritize your list into three sections:

Urgent – These are the jobs that have to get done that day like mailing a painting, paying a bill, or finishing a commission project.

Essential – These are essential jobs but do not need to get done that day but need to get done in the next couple of days. 

Not Important – These are jobs that you can put on the backburner that will not affect your business

On your daily to-do list, place a U next to urgent tasks, E next to essential jobs, and N next to jobs you can do on a different day.

If it is easier for you, rewrite the list into the three different groups.

Now that you have your list revised, you will not overlook any crucial jobs for you to complete that day.

Set A Time Limite For Each Job

The next step is to take your list and write down how long each project should take to complete the task.

Be realistic with your times and allow some extra time for interruptions.

For example, if you are shipping a painting and it takes you ten minutes to drive to the post office, add 10 minutes for driving and an additional 15 minutes just in case, the line is long.

So for this example, it will take 45 minutes to ship a painting.

If you get the job done quicker, you can use the extra time for essential jobs to make the rest of the week a little easier. If it takes you 45 minutes, it will not affect the rest of your day.

Productive Times

After you have set a time limit for all of the tasks, you will want to schedule the tasks when you are most productive for each job.

For example, if you are more creative at night, schedule your studio time in the evening. 

If you are less distracted in the morning and focus better on writing blog posts in the morning, schedule your writing jobs after breakfast. 

This time management strategy is also known as time blocking.

Block off time throughout the day for all of the important tasks that need to get done for that day.

When you have finished a job write down next to it the time spent on finishing the project. This information will help you to block off the right time for each job.

The next step is to get to work.

More Time Management Tips

Get Organized – The more organized you are, the more you will accomplish during the day. You will be surprised how much time is wasted by looking for things that have been misplaced. Everything related to your art business should have a designated area and replaced when not in use.

One Task – Focus on one thing at a time. some people think that starting several jobs at once is multitasking. Humans are not wired to multitask. Our brains can only focus on one thing at a time. Instead of starting ten different tasks, focus on something at a time. Get that job done then move on to the next.

Stop Being Perfect – Most jobs can be revised or altered on a different day. Do the best you can for each job and assess it the next day if needed. 

Change Your Schedule – As you go along, you will learn how you can do things differently to save more time. For example, maybe writing in the afternoon will be better than in the morning, or perhaps something has popped up for the evening, so you will have to paint in the morning. Do not be afraid of changing your schedule if it will be more productive. 

Eliminate Distractions – There are distractions all around you, and if you allow them to distract you, you will never get anything done. 

Some easy distractions to avoid are:

• Social media
• Texts
• Television
• Phone calls that are not emergencies

Outsource jobs– There will be jobs that you excel at and other jobs that eat up your time, like designing a logo for your art website of creating social media images. Jobs like these can be outsourced by hiring a freelancer at Fiverr or a college student looking for a part-time job. 

Outsourcing jobs like these will not break the bank and free up some time to focus on more critical tasks that will make you more money.

It Is Ok To Say No – If you are the type of person who can not say no to people, you have to learn how to accept that it is ok to say no sometimes. For example, if a friend wants you to go to lunch and you have to finish a commission project, it is ok to say you can’t make it, but let’s reschedule. 

4 Benefits of Being a Morning Person

Early morning hours are the best time to reflect and get more in tune with who you are and where you want to go. There are many benefits to being a morning person and beginning your day with a positive mind frame.

Time to think

When you wake up early while everyone else in the family is still asleep, you have time to be alone with your thoughts. No phones are ringing or children need your undivided attention. 

You have ample time to be creative, think about the day ahead, and what you want to accomplish.

This is your time to contemplate decisions that need to be made and the progress you want to make throughout the day. 

In this fast-paced world, it seems like there is rarely a moment to stop, take everything in. 

If you start your day with a plan, you will end the day feeling accomplished.

Productivity

If you start your day by giving yourself a few extra hours in the morning, you are bound to be more productive throughout the day. There is an open window of opportunity when you give yourself more time to plan, prepare, and take action. 

There are not nearly as many distractions in the early morning to keep you from accomplishing what needs to be done, and you will find that time goes by faster because you are doing more throughout the day.

Try giving yourself an extra hour or two in the morning and see how much more you can achieve. 

Those who take advantage of that time should see tremendous success in their life and business.

Breakfast

Giving yourself some extra time in the morning will allow you to eat breakfast, which is by far the most important meal of the day. Eating a healthy meal for breakfast gets your creative juices flowing and allows you the energy to start the day off on the right foot.

So many people wake up rushed and wind up, skipping breakfast altogether. Not eating breakfast leaves them feeling groggy, unmotivated, and sluggish during the day. 

How can you be productive if you can not think clearly? 

Exercise

Working out is something that people tend to skip because they don’t have enough time. Waking up earlier gives you more time to start an exercise routine. 

It’s been said that the early morning is the best time to work out because it leaves you feeling energized and ready to take on the world. Combine that with a healthy breakfast, and you can’t go wrong. 

Final Thoughts On Effective Time Management Strategies

Creating and selling art take a lot of hard work.

Learning and applying the different strategies for time management outlined above will help you to achieve your goals.

Learning how to manage your time more effectively can be learned no matter how bad you are at time management.

The first step is to get in the habit of writing down what you need to get done that day, prioritizing the list, and scheduling the tasks when you are more productive. 

The next step is to learn how to remove distractions from your workspace like leaving your phone in a different room, taking your smartwatch off when you are drawing, and staying off social media.

As you work on your time management skills, you will discover different ways to accomp[lish more in less time.

Which of the following strategies is recommended as an effective way to manage your time?

The most effective way to manage your time is having a clear vision of what needs to get done and when you are most produtive for each project.

The objective is to complete all of the Urgent tasks and maybe one ore two essential jobs every day. Getting yourself in this habit will help you realize that you have more free time to do other things in life that you enjoy. 

More Time Management Articles

• How Prioritizing Will Increase Art Sales
• Sell Original Art Online By Prioritizing Your Lists 
• 5 Effective Time Management For Artist Tips
• How To Be More Productive With Your Art Blog
• Art Business Basics Before You Plan