I'm very fortunate to have Fridays as my "studio day." When I made some big changes in my life earlier this year and dropped down to working part time, it felt very selfish to carve out a whole day of the work week to devote completely to Connect the Dots. But it was something that I felt needed to happen in order for me to really start taking my business and myself as an artist seriously.
So here I am, sitting in my PJ's with my to-do list. With some new opportunities coming my way this fall (stay tuned for a BIG and EXCITING announcement soon!), my to-do list has grown! It takes a lot of self-discipline to manage my own time, but it's starting to feel second nature to me. I'm trying something today where instead of staring at a long list and feeling overwhelmed, I've made a schedule for myself and assigned each item to a specific hour.
Notice how LUNCH has an entire hour. I'm learning that my biggest time management issue is not disciplining myself to be productive - I struggle most with stepping back to take breaks and "turn it off" for a little while. I think this runs in my family - my Dad owns his own business, and he works 7 days a week. I've often been told that my spirit animal is a squirrel because I'm so gosh darn industrious all the time.
When I come home from my job, I could continue to work all night on Connect the Dots, and I often do because I'm excited and I have a lot of ideas and I always keep adding to that to-do list. But I'm trying to be better at setting time limits for myself, like: "Ok, I can work on Connect the Dots until 8:00pm, and then I'll shut down my computer and relax."
Speaking of which, I really should go and eat breakfast.
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Hey, Friday's my studio day, too :) I totally feel you on having a hard time taking a break! Maybe you can make a list of non-business things that you can do to relax and kind of treat it like your to-do list, by checking stuff off, etc? Sounds kinda silly, I guess, but might actually work for you?
ReplyDeletei try to take time off! but im not working full time anymore. due to illness i can no longer work and i can only craft for about an hour a day.. other than that im bed bound and usually completely out of it. I have CFS.. i got cfs after an infection after surgery but they think the main stressor was cuz i was working full time and in the final year of my degree. I couldnt switch off at all. and even when im totally out of it and i cant move my head gets full of pretty craft things. Be careful you dont do too much or you might end up in a wheel chair!
ReplyDeleteYou dont need to work as hard as you do... it will come. Your crafts are fabulous. Keep a notebook and i know you get excited but you can plan when you will make your items etc! i have had to be very disciplined with my projects cuz usually after i end up being so exhausted I have like a fainting fit (usually once a week) and used to end up in casualty every flippin time!! Just as a warning to you. your crafts are fabulous. be careful about burning your candle at both ends of the spectrum (my fave cath and kim quote lol)
Moira - thanks for the advice. If there's one thing I know I respond well to, it's a to-do list. So I'm going to add the fun stuff to my list too!!
ReplyDeleteClaire - thanks for the reminder to take it easy on myself. It's so easy to get carried away with inspiration, but I DO have two other jobs that I'm juggling too, and it can get to be a bit much. I hope you're feeling well - I am so amazed at all you are doing even with so much going on with you body!