Time Management: How do you do it?

[Patt Legg]

Michele, I totally agree on the priortize thing. I am very high energy and if I were to use todays' jargen, maybe a little ADD too in that my mind works the same way. It doesn't stop until I can finally sleep. Although I do not have trouble sleeping.

Please know that I am not really complaining but more asking for a 1,2,3, kind of list of how one goes about the priortizing thing. What do I liminate here. Believe me, my house has suffered because it definitely is not my prioity anymore like it used to be. It's not bad now you know but just not perfect, that lived in look.

Hubby says all of the time that one thing is that I am a perfectionest and that is probably true. So I over-do.

Thanks for reply at least acknowledging that someone out there read it.

Have a good day
Patt

[Julie Deane]

Patt,

I can relate to a lot you wrote, especially the "racing against time".

After years taking care of family, we have time to do more for ourselves. But how much time is left? 10 years? 20? 40? That mortality factor....

When I was young I assumed I had plenty of time. Now I know better. I had better get what I want to do done before it is too late.

The paradox is: if artwork is done to the exclusion of basic health, potential painting time is shortened by default.

The priorities: enough sleep, taking time to cook right and exercise. Certain household basics. That takes care of the physical. Then the emotional/spiritual. For me, emotional needs include the need to create.

[Debra Jones]

I am jumping in here, as I use internet time to walk away from the art stuff.

Reading the above posts, I guess I do sort of have a rhythm, if not a schedule.

I am in life limbo but the only cohesion is painting. I had to move out of my home of 13 years in January and am rooming in a very nice place but under emotionally impossible conditions with an ex-boyfriend whose recent divorce made an extra bit of cash very attractive. The digs are very temporary and very far from my sphere of influcence. I have begun to live in my car and it is not pretty.

Since I have restarted painting, I have always kept supplies in my trunk and I got a big rolling suitcase so I have a little shop on wheels. I do as many demos as I can anywhere they will let me. Presently I paint probably 4-6 hours on weekends at a pet friendly coffee house 20 miles from my present living quarters, but have added a fancy resort hotel to the list at 2-3 hours a stint a couple of days a week and it is only 30 miles away. When I drive I think and listen to the radio so I am becoming political! The painting demos are my real advertizing. The paintings I do there have rarely been commissions but I will paint anyway, so if I do it in public, I am widening my range of visibility.

When I hit home, I print brochures. I always include 10 with my commissions and feature the painting I just did on the cover! That way when the client is spreading the word on my work, they are doing it with DOUBLE pride! So that means more computer time. That is as much fun as watching paint dry because I have a very old machine.

I also have a day job, also 20 miles away and I have tried to limit my days there to three. I can set my own schedule but when you DON'T want clients, they can't leave you alone. I have tried this week to to a demo in the morning and am moving the clients to evening and afternoon. It is exhausting but I feel better about my miles on the road, adding the extra ten on top of the first 20!

I paint when I get home and mostly on the weekdays off. The roommate situation has made me a cave dweller. I seem to have odd rituals that include pacing from room to room, piddling about sort of like winding a spring. After hunting for lost things, looking in the refrigerator for nothing, wiping counters, balancing a check book, all the while, forming the image in my head, I sort of LEAP into work and paint. The other night, I had three pieces roughed in for the demos (NEVER go totally blank, always look good from the first stroke or I lose the audience....) I found myself finishing two and literally locking myself out of the room so I would have at least an hour of time to do! I have to schedule life in between painting and it makes it hard to find the people to buy the work when I prefer to be making it than selling it.

Today, I am going to go out in two hours. I have nothing ready. There are two LARGE animal commissions looming, that I have sent layouts to the clients, but have not gotten confirmation to proceed. I will not touch a canvas until I get a committment. I have plenty of good things in my head without speculating on art I cannot resell. SO I will play with a few of my own photos for a half hour and pick one. Then I will sketch and do an underpainting in acrylic so I have a start. Then I will paint for three hours and chat. Hopefully I will pass out enough brochures and ONE person will either get a picture out of their wallet or actually email something to me so I can start a long distance relationship.

When I get permanent digs, I will have sitters. I have worked from life for so long, that photos are seriously cheating for me. I like doing all my composition in the computer before I paint and then disengage my brain and just paint.

This was about time management.

I have a priority and whenever I talk to people, I point out that I have an excellent work ethic but a rather nebulous job! Under all this perceived chaos is one goal: Make enough money to have art as my job. This means putting a shingle out in front of a studio and finding a home ALONE to sit my buns in when I want to watch Jon Stewart at midnight. That is when I crash now . . . until the roommate's garage door opens at 6:30 and lets me know I can start wandering the house again.

Well, the brain is wound, I have to put the painting together now and maybe meet a few members at the Scottsdale Princess today!

[Patt Legg]

Debra,

Wow!! After reading your post , I feel better. It is truly amazing how your life sounds chaotic but organized in such a manner that you accomplish so very much. I went to your web site and I am very impressed to say the least.

In my case, I feel that much of my dilemma is that of having too many "things". I think that is a common complaint in the later years. I wish to scale down therefore,we finally put our house up for Sale. Of course, hubby asks, "what is scale down? don't you know the next house will still have to be cleaned,etc?"

Sometimes a little two bedroom cabin with a few trees around it, a porch with a comfy chair where I can sip my a.m. coffee or my cup of tea at dusk, a single easel, tiny table with a glass palette full of paint and brushes, enough beans and rice to suffice for awhile ---------well, I can dream can't I?

Life if so funny. The prior paragraph was almost a precise description of the way I began years ago--and then I wanted to do better. I sometimes wonder why human nature is that way and it truly is. In this space where I am in my head now is Solitude, quiet-ness, Spiritual. I love where I am now as far as my life goes ----I am definitely more at peace with myself. I sometimes think that is in some way--the problem. Like you said, Julie, after all those years of taking care of others, we often are at a loss of how to take care of ourselves---at least without a hint of guilt there.

Debra, I lived in Chandler for about 13 years-------wayy-y-y-y back in early 60's. As a matter of fact it was there that I had my first interest in painting.
Haven't been there since 1973 and I hear Chandler is hugely populated and so crowded now.
But I do leave an X there where I still have my name on a house---but that's another story. Tell ya sometime.

[SB Wang]

Linda:
I'm not qualified for talking about this topic, so:
http://www.mindtools.com/page5.html

[Anthony Emmolo]

Hello Linda,

I have a lot of thoughts on time management. Some may be worth your while to think about. Firstly, I try to learn a lot about this business by the people of today who I feel are the top business people of the day. They may not be artists, but they are successful largely due to their good habits and persistence.

Here are a few what I consider to be gems by Donald Trump the New York City Real Estate Developer on this very topic:

From "The Art Of The Deal"

Page 7- "...lunch: a can of tomato juice. I rarely go out, because mostly, it's a waste of time."

Page 12- After writing about a phone call he received that covered a lot of turf. "Our call lasts less than two minutes. That's one thing I love about Alan: he never wastes time."

Page 33- "Also when I do give an interview, I always keep it short. This reporter is in and out in less than twenty minutes. If I didn't limit myself, I could spend my life talking to the press."

Donald Trump is a hard man in many ways. It may not be so necessary for an artist to be this strict with oneself. However, from time to time we could probably save a lot of time for painting just by letting the phone ring, using the computer with a timer on it, etc. I for one have benefited from the words the I just wrote from that book. I tend to be a second coffee kind of guy before going into the studio at times.

Also, any book I read about successful habits comes from people who are up and working at no later than 6:00am. I've started that habit as well.

Good luck,
Anthony

[Patricia Joyce]

I have revisited this thread several times, looking for help managing my time. But it is not just time we have to manage. How do you manage your relationships, too?

I did NO art during the 25 years I raised my two sons, alone. In the desperate moments of the business of being a single mom to two active boys I whispered over and over to myself, "when K and K are grown and out of the house, it will be MY TIME, to pursue my passion for portraiture, to larn to draw and to paint. I will be my first priority then"

Well the kids are grown and out of the house for five years now. And I have returned to my art and I feel progressed fairly well in the pat few years (especially since finding this fourm two years ago, thank you cynthia and all those who have helped me immeasurably)

I have even changed my work schedule to four ten hour days so that I have an extra day at home. What I have accomplished time wise is this:

Saturday morning I try to get all household chores done, grocery shopping, errands, housecleaning, etc. On good days I can get to the studio by mid afternoon and have a couple hours...except my fiance wants dinner and to go out at night - when I am pooped.

Sunday I try to take the morning to relax read the paper, Sunday breakfast, time with jack on our new wrap around porch in our new house, church. Afternoon a three or four hour time in my studio wherre I paint or draw and break every 45 minutes to change out th laundry. Sunday evening Jack is home and wants to take our long walk in the valley, or go out on a friend's boat, etc.

Monday is studio day. I turn off the phone, I will not touch a mop or broom, or washcloth or dish soap or even take a shower until evening. I AM IN MY STUDIO . and come 6pm when Jack gets home I am so sad that the day is over.

My problem is that now I am hearing complaints that the house is a mess, I never want to cook, and I am always tired...At what emotional/relationship lengths will we go as artist, to commit to our art and to life partners?

And still, with only about 15 hours to DO art I still wonder how I am going to learn photography?? My studio needs lots of work still, establishing a place to put my model and the correct lighting, learning photoshop, how to photograph my models, building a model stand, shopping for art supplies (mostly that is done on line these days, which is fine) And then after that there are my boys, my grandchildren, my ailing father, my five siblings and all the weddings birthday parties showers work picnics to attend

LIFE IS SHORT, A DAY IS BRIEF. CAN I BECOME AN Accomplished artist and still have A life??? Seriously, there are so many times I think I need to escape Cleveland altogether, take my puppy and live like a hermit, near New York (so I can take Marvin's Saturday classes), but dirt poor, without a job . . .

[Molly Sherrick Phifer]

Patty,

I can relate, as I'm sure many of us can. In our society, we have a "do it all" theme. There are so many things complicating our lives that we feel sapped of our vitality and guilty when we try to "steal" moments to regain some measure of energy. There has been a lot written about how to simplify and regain your life and I personally could open a library dedicated to that subject! One of the all-around best websites I have ever seen in helping folks (particularly women, but not only women) reverse the energy draining trends in their lives is Flylady . The woman who started the site has workable solutions, tips, philosophical discourse and fun attitude adjusting challenges and musings.

There is hope!

[Julie Deane]

Hi Patricia -

I sure can relate! In fact, I was just journaling about this topic (again) this morning. Although my relationship issues are different: divorced with one college-aged son commuting to school and working part-time from home.

I'm learning that I have to set boundaries with him. In fact, I just informed him today that if he wants me to pick up anything for him at the store, that I only plan to go shopping on Fridays. It's a good boundary for me, too, so that I don't waste time.

The next boundary I need to set is what times I will actually be in the studio. If I don't do that, I find that the more insistant stuff gets done first. I plan to let my son know those hours, too, and post them outside my studio.

I've decided that I will do what I can and quit the fretting. I will not be as good an artist personally if I am worrying where my next meal is coming from, so quitting my job is not an option for me. (Plus I like my job - it fulfills a different aspect of my personality).

I'll probably never be a big-name artist, but what is more important to me - to enjoy my life and my art or to go half-crazy because I can't fulfill all the demands I put on myself? Today I am choosing balance. I'll do what art/business things I can and leave the results in God's hands.