Time is on My Side...Or Not

Back in July of this year, I cut back my hours at Fine Print Imaging, where I’ve worked for the past 26 plus years.  I am now working Monday – Wednesday at Fine Print, while Thursdays and Fridays are reserved for my art business.

 

I think somewhere in my head I believed that I would have so much time to paint in these two days. And so much time to devote to marketing my work. And so much time to build relationships with other artists.  The first month I got absolutely nothing art related done on my “art days.”  In my defense, I just moved  into a new home, and that first month was spent trying to find stuff. 

 

So now, after a month of devoting those two days a week to art I am laughing at my naïve self!

 

“So much time” seems to fly by quickly, especially if I get caught up in the distractions of having my studio in my home.  Distractions like laundry, Facebook, yard work, Pinterest, etc. – all things I do to avoid staring at the blank canvas or the blank blog post.  Oddly, it was one distraction – Pinterest – which was an “aha” moment for me

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A schedule.  Not the kind of schedule I would have made for myself, which would have been a “nose to the grindstone, get up at 6 AM and paint until noon…take ½ hour break…get back in studio and paint until 4” kind of schedule.  Which is not the way my creative mind works, but is the way my “inner boss” wants it.  No, this schedule accommodates shorter “work times” interspersed with thinking time and reading time and exercise time and meeting friends for lunch time.

So for now my Thursday/Friday schedule looks something like this:

7:00 AM – 8:30AM.  Walk dog.  Yoga/meditation. Breakfast.

8:30 – 9:00  Email correspondence

9:00 – 10:30  Painting

10:30 – 11:00 Laundry/etc.

11:00 – 12:30 Painting

12:30 – 1:30 Lunch/walk dog/ read, etc.

1:30 – 3:00 “Marketing” (writing my blog or newsletter, posting to Facebook, designing postcards, etc.

3:00 – 5:00 "Flex time" - errands, painting, marketing, as needed.

This may be subject to change – after all, one of the great things about working for oneself is the ability to be flexible. If I want to drive down to the Denver Art Museum one day, I can. If I want to meet someone for lunch I can.  But what the schedule does is give me a framework and helps keep me on track.

I’ll let you know how it goes!

If you want to see the “pin” that helped me organize my day, go to www.pinterest.com/katedardine,  and look on my “other cool stuff” board. (Someday I’ll organize my Pinterest boards better. Probably the same time I get all my old photos out of boxes and put them in albums. Ha!)

How do you juggle your art business with your "day job", family, other interests? Do you have a schedule? 

Kate Dardine has been helping photographers and artists market their prints for over 26 years. She is currently the newsletter editor and new customer liaison at Fine Print Imaging, as well as a professional artist selling original paintings and prints.Her website is www.katedardine.com