Time Management For Artist : A Quick Guide

When you create your art, time ceases to exist, and you are in a state where you don’t really care about it. 

But if you are not a full-time artist, have a job and family, along with focusing on health,  you won’t find enough time to pay attention to everything. 

Time management is one of the things from which the artist struggles most, even if you love doing paint and drawing, time tends to run out without doing any other thing. 

So how can you manage your time when you are an artist? Here is a quick guide for solving the problem for you. 

What You Should Know About Time Management? 

Understanding the definition of time management can help you in improving management and also following the rules much better. 

Time management is basically a process where you plan and organize the tasks in order to boost efficiency as well as improve productivity. 

By efficiently managing your time, making it easier for achieving goals at a much faster pace and easier way.

Due to this, it’s important for the artist to understand learning about how to implement time management. It can help you in managing the overall workload. 

For example, to find which time is suitable for making the art, especially when you are a busy artist. 

When you are having strong organizational skills and time management, this can help in improving how to prioritize and be a creative individual. 

Why Is Time Management An Important Skill For Artists?

Time management is an important skill, not just for the artist but as an individual you need to learn the skills. 

benefits time management for artist

This can help you in maximizing your time and deciding what to do as well when to do, so when you learn the skill, it can help you : 

  • Getting more work and projects done, and also help in understanding how to do it in an easier way 
  • Developing the routines for conducting your career and business. 
  • Reducing the stress as it frees up the space and focusing on yourself.
  • It helps you in reaching your goals faster and in simpler ways.

When you develop strong management skills as an artist, it is crucial to set an order and ensure you are using time wisely. 

20 Ways To Do Time Management For The Artist 

So far you have got an idea of why time management is important and what it is all about. 

So to improve time management as an artist, different ways can help you.

Here are some listed ways for artists to do time management, it includes : 

time management tips for artist

Image Content: Tips To Do Time Management For Artist 

  • Write down todos
  • Create not to-do list 
  • Prioritize on a daily basis 
  • Set art goals 
  • Get surrounding ready 
  • Automate 
  • Create smart goals
  • Consider using bullet journaling 
  • Draw daily schedule 

Write Down To Do And To Not Do List 

To-do lists are an important part when you are doing time management. However, to start this with an effective way, it includes : 

  • Create a list where you add all the tasks you need to get done within a day and week. 
  • Observe the tasks and decide which one is important, arrange it in a way of importance to not so important. 
  • Make sure you determine the tasks if it’s essential or nonessential, regarding them from highest and lowest priorities. 
  • You can add the tasks related to your work, including purchasing the art supplies,  communicating with clients, or arranging your life-related work. 

Apart from creating a to-do list,  next, you need to create a not-to-do list. 

This is the opposite of a to-do list where you add things you should not be doing as it can lower productivity and not manage time well. 

In this list, you are required to analyze what affects the time management and your schedule in order to avoid it. 

Prioritizing What You Need To Do Daily 

One of the best ways that can be organized as an artist, you need to learn how to prioritize well. 

Now when you are doing the time management strategy,  it can be a bit tricky as you require to be honest with yourself. 

You must acknowledge which tasks are important and which ones are not. 

You must do this as an imperative for recognizing tasks, and help in getting results much faster and efficiently. 

It’s an important step, so don’t skip it and you might end up wasting time on work that is less important instead of high-value pens. 

This also ends up slowing down and distracting you from what you should be doing. 

Set The Art Goals And Make It Achievable 

One of the best tips you can get for time management when you are an artist is to start with setting goals. 

Just like you do positive daily affirmation, you need to do the goal-setting as its powerful stargate. This helps you in improving the habit by training the mind for focusing on goals that are result-driven. 

So you can use the word document or journal where you can start setting the goals. 

First, you are required to create the categories, this will help you in writing down the goals that you want to achieve. 

It can be : 

  • Work and professional goals 
  • Personal goals 
  • Learning goals 
  • Miscellaneous goals 
  • Business or entrepreneurial goals. 

When you create the categories, do the brainstorming and start asking the question to find what are your artist goals. 

Draw Your Daily Schedule 

The next thing you should do is to plan the day before you start the work, write down everything you need to do on paper. 

This means you need to add every single thing and don’t forget anything. 

It’s even crucial before you jump directly to prioritize and schedule. 

This can help you in saving a lot of time on the next steps of doing time management. 

However one of the problems you might find is getting too much on the list.  So how will you know if it’s too much on the list? 

  • Start with writing the goals to make them more realistic and be slightly generous with time. 
  • Keep the right time in the middle of your work, don’t over-commit or restrict too much. 
  • Write the email which takes around 10 minutes phone calls for 30 minutes and create be specific for managing the tasks for the set hours.

Identifying What Waste Time Of Your 

What takes your time when you are creating art? It might be choosing the idea of setting the place where you want to make art?

Or maybe it’s not related to art but something regarding the family or kids where you need to focus while you are working on art so it takes much more time than needed, in another world, it can be a waste of time in your day. 

So you need to focus on finding the things which are wasting your time, messing up the schedule, and triggering other things. 

You can use the tools for tracking and finding what is wasting time. And removing all things to focus better. 

Don’t Do Everything At Once 

Handling multiple things when you are working on the art, it can be quite distracting. 

Also, when you are an artist, you don’t want to feel distracted, it needs your focus and complete attention. 

Rather than handling multiple things. focus on one thing and improve the quality of both. 

Get one job done, then move to another task and avoid multitasking. 

Create The Smart Goals For Yourself 

Focus on creating the SMART goals, it stands for : 

  • Specific 
  • Measurable 
  • Attainable 
  • Realistic 
  • Timely 

These are the smart goals that help you in giving the right direction for realizing the goals. 

For example,   let’s say you want to create an artwork or complete the client’s work within the time limit.

This can be vague, instead of being vague, focus on defining the goals and break them down in much more detail.s 

Batch Up The Tasks Which Are Non-Arts

In order to be more focused and clear with what you need to do in a day or week, batch up the similar tasks in one group. 

For example, if you have to check the emails, batch it in a horse along with similar things like Facebook and other social media. 

Also, find out the work which is not related to your art, categorize it and schedule time for it. And this will give much more space, and understanding 

Structure Day For Creating Your Flow 

As an artist, you are required to create a flow and to get into the zone. When you do, it turns out to be magic and improves the chances of making the art in depth. 

Try assigning the hours, it can be two hours for each day, and make sure you are focusing, 

Also remove the things that disturb you, like your phone or people around you, with this you can schedule it later so it won’t disturb your state and workflow. 

Have All The Material And Reference To Hand 

However, when you are an artist, you might be aware of how much time it takes before you actually start it. 

Having to hunt to find the right reference material, it can help you in saving the waste of precious time. 

You might put all things in one place, but it can mess up everything you dumped in one place which causes confusion. 

So focus on saving your work, if you want to start on your piece, make sure all the materials and references are in one place. 

Get the art supplies and everything updated so when you sit to do work, you don’t have to waste time on getting things. 

Block Out Your Surrounding 

Once you start the work, make sure you are blocking all kinds of distractions.  Before this, find what causes the disturbance, it’s a random call you get or food that you have to cook or something else. 

If it’s not urgent, you can schedule a call for later or get it done before you start the project. Also, put your phone on silent so you don’t get the notification and updates. 

If you are required to make a meal,  find something that you can cook easily without investing too much time. 

Find What Helps Your Creative Side Unlock 

A Lot of artists have ways that help them in unloading their creativity and getting into that flow state. 

It can be the music you like or maybe a certain kind of atmosphere. Or maybe you need complete silence. To be productive and manage the time that you have, find things to help yourself. 

Put your mind at ease so you have a clear mind, focusing completely on what you need to make and enjoy the process.

 This not only makes your time more productive but you also get the whole thing done faster than having a tired and unfocused mind. 

Set Your Timers And Reminders 

If you don’t get the time right or end up spending more time than needed, then you can put timers on what you do. so when your work hours are going to end, you will get the idea of when you need to stop. 

It gives you much more awareness and also helps in managing your time management schedule well. 

You can also use the reminders, not just for professional work but personal or related tasks. 

Keep the Last 15 Minute For Wrap Up 

After spending the whole day on managing your time and getting your task done, you need at least 15 minutes to wrap up the day. 

You can create an email or journal to write down what you did, and update your diary on the medium every day. This gives you awareness of what happened throughout the day, how many tasks you did, and what was left. 

When you have an idea of your own time, it helps in managing it much better. 

Consider Using Bullet Journaling For Time Management 

However, it depends on what you prefer in journaling since a lot of artists do art journaling where they put their inspiration and ideas altogether. but with a bullet journal, you can do much better time management.

 It’s an elegant way as it’s basically analog allowing you to schedule your work, brainstorm, and set reminders. 

You can choose the diary for it or consider using an app, depending on what makes you at ease. 

The time management journal can include different indexing, dots, abbreviations, and tools and techniques. 

Automate What Can Be 

There might be a lot of things where you don’t have to give your complete focus and still, it can be done. 

So you can consider automation for ensuring all tasks are getting done on time. 

In addition, it helps you not feel bogged down or stressed. For example, you can subscribe to the art items you need, so you don’t have to go shopping. 

Not just that, if you are posting the photos on Instagram, you can schedule the post. 

Creates The Routines 

All of the tips regarding time management won’t work if you don’t have a routine for yourself. 

It needs a strong and consistent routine that you practice on a daily basis, for example, if not consulting it then what’s the point of cuddling things. 

At first, it might be hard to follow the routine, but as you do, it will be much easier, and along the way, you can adjust according to what you believe is helpful for you. 

Work When It’s Your Peak Time 

Since your body has its natural time when it’s at its peak of productivity and the creative juice starts to flow, you don’t have to force it. 

To find out the time, you can do this by tracking down your time and where as well as for what you are spending it. see when you are naturally into the tasks, much focus, and productivity. 

Mark those hours and get your important work done within those hours, leaving the time free for yourself to focus on tasks that need less attention. 

Give Yourself Care And Break 

Time management also heavily depends on how you take care of yourself. When you are feeling happy and healthy, you are more ready to tackle things, not just physically but mentally too, 

If you are an artist, you need to put a day for yourself, take self-care, and take breaks while you follow the schedule. 

You can focus on scheduling the time for breaks on everyday tasks. Don’t spend hours and hours working, it won’t be good for your health. 

Also, you can’t be creative and imaginative when you have a tired body as well as mind. 

Learn To Say No When You Can 

Not all work you receive requires you to do, so don’t get pressure from things unrelated to you. 

If there is something important to focus on, say no to other tasks which are less important or hold value. 

When you learn to say no, you will get more time and a stress-free schedule for yourself. 

Don’t have to request from every direction since you have limited strength and time, put it to good use. 

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