It’s been a long time since I wrote a blog post! This last year has been really busy and it shows no signs of slowing down, so I had better learn to keep up. Last year I created my art booth to show my work at fairs and festivals, participated in my first Portland Open Studios tour, created (and sold!) 30 pieces of new work for the Little Things show, spent the holidays in Oklahoma, and created 11 new larger pieces for my first solo show. Every time I thought I was going to get a break there was something else to be working on. Even now, I have events lined up throughout the summer and upcoming shows. It’s been very tough to learn to balance the art making with the upkeep of this website, my portfolio, Etsy, and the budget while trying to tackle long term goals like making photoboxes and prints of my work. To organize myself I made a Weekly Work Breakdown schedule. Without a clear plan of what I need to do each day I tend to flounder, and maintaining all areas of art business is easier if you chip away at it a little each day. Otherwise it all piles up and before you know it you have to reorder business cards, check 200 comments, update your portfolio, write the monthly newsletter, and get that painting to the gallery all on the same day. I sat down this weekend to think about what areas need weekly maintenance and how best to break it up. From now on, everyday after breakfast I’ll turn on my wax, grab that second cup of coffee, and work for an hour on that morning’s Weekly Work task. Here is the basic breakdown of what I tackle each day:
Monday – Research shows, fairs, or festivals. Apply to those coming up and make a list of recurring shows in order of deadlines. Go through the Art Notes RACC flyer at the beginning of the month.
Tuesday – Internet maintenance. Check comments on website, Etsy and social media sites related to my art. Add new photos of work to portfolios and make art related posts on social media sites.
Wednesday – Research representation. Compile a list of galleries and alternative venues that might be interested in representing my work. Get materials ready to send and contact places.
Thursday – Updates. Work on blog posts (even if I don’t finish them in an hour) event blog posts, the event calendar, and the monthly email newsletter. Promote events and blog posts on social media.
Friday – Long term projects. This is the day I take care of other business, like ordering more business cards, and chip away at those big things I want to do, like learning to mix my own colors, making presentation boxes, creating a photo box, or figuring out how to make my own prints. Some weeks I’ll have whole days to devote to these things, but even when I don’t I want to at least be working on them a little at a time.
Saturday – Update budget spread sheet and file. My receipts tend to pile up and I know I have to keep careful track of my spending for taxes, so these should be entered every week. Also my filing tends to get out of control and it’s frustrating when I can’t find the paperwork I need.
There’s my schedule of non-painting related work. I know I won’t stick to the schedule perfectly all the time, but it gives me a structure to work with and it will hopefully keep me more on top of things. If I work at these things for an hour each day I should stay more on top of things and not be surprised with approaching deadlines and hundreds of comments to check.
What systems have you put in place to keep yourself organized? Have they helped?
Peace! Chantel