Thursday, April 19, 2007

Time Managment

How do you do that????

I recently had a conversation with a fellow painter about time management.
As they say, there is never enough time in the day. This is something
I've struggled with for, well, I guess as long as I can remember. Itstuff
to schedule time for everything you need to do in a day, a week, a
month. I've never been very good at it. I myself seem to just go with
the flow and see where it takes me but I've known for a long time that
that simply Is not the way to get things done. Organization and
prioritizing I think is the key.

A balanced life is a successful life. (who said that?)

So here are my thoughts on this and practical actions I hope/plan to take in my life that perhaps will help you as well.

My Goal
1. Organize and plan the time spent in your studio. (see archived post on this subject)
2. schedule specific days to work on a) still life painting b) plein air painting and or finishing up a plein air painting in the studio and c) figure painting with a live model or finishing with a photo.
3. time to stretch canvases or make panels
4. time to work on the business side of your art, that is updating mailing list sending out newsletters, taking slides and digitals of your work.
5. time to enjoy. We all need time to relax and experience life. sometimes just being, stopping to smell the roses and being grateful for what we are able to do, that is to Paint.

Wow, Do I ever need to hear this. Hope my advise to myself helps you out too.

Note. I remember taking a workshop with Rose Frantzen and she said when she is painting she is also living. How true.

creating the environment around you to enjoy and experience life
without stress makes you a better painter. "Again life moves pretty
fast and if you don't stop and look around once in awhile you could
miss it." (borrowed from FerrisBeuller's Day off for all you fans)

So I think by better planning you will be able to get more things done and have time to relax every once in awhile.

1 comment:

Art Enthusiast said...

Time management is not an easy thing to stay on top of. Life has so many demands, and many of them are legitimate, but as a painter I need blocks of quiet time and way less distractions. Often I ask mysf "will this matter in eternity?" to help me prioritize, and not get upset when people I love dearly want my time and attention.
I have been traveling a lot and gotten into photography pretty heavily, so added to teaching two days a week and maybe some gardening now that time is upon us, I have no time for socializing. (And forget about housework)I am constantly reaching out for more time in my day. Organization and prioritizing is truly the key as you said.
Planning the time to do what you want to do is really helpful. Maybe if we didn't have to sleep we could do more.