On productivity
Making time for making art
I started writing this post on January 31st and by the time I gathered my thoughts it was already past midnight and a new month had begun.
So what happened, where did my last day of January go and was any part of it artistically productive? Well, I drew my 10 minute pencil sketch, worked on my book dummy for a while (most of the ideas for tweaking the manuscript came to me during a dog walk), I prepared images for this post (btw, which one of these chicken colour combos do you like best?) and before I knew it it was February.
People have different times of day when they feel most focused and creative, their most productive time. For me that time is in the morning (after I’ve sent the kids to school, walked the dog and had breakfast) until lunch when things start to slow down again. Afternoons are for catching up with housework (one of the downsides of working from home is that you can never really get away from pesky chores), grocery shopping, appointments and other non art related stuff. And soon enough it’s time to cook dinner after which I might draw on my iPad for another hour - or find myself fiddling around Procreate files way past midnight… you just can’t plan each day perfectly.
More time doesn’t mean more productivity
As my kids grew older and more independent with longer school days, my days got longer as well. One would think that with all those hours stretching before me every day, planning my art time would be a piece of cake. It turns out that without time restrictions (no more lunch time pickups from school, no more endless after school activities to chauffeur to) it was much harder to structure my day like I would when I only had a free hour here and there.
I had to find a new way to organise my days. Step one was to focus on a week rather than every individual day. A day can quickly get derailed with an unexpected event, unscheduled appointment or some other sudden change, no matter how many reminders I program into my phone.
Somebody from the illustrator community recommended a book that I found eye opening: Winning the Week: How To Plan A Successful Week, Every Week by Carey and Demir Bentley. It’s a perfect planning method for people who hate planning (raise a hand) and a week is a much more flexible chunk of time to plan your work when you’re an artist.
Quiet time
As independent artists we need to create an environment that helps us plan our work, schedule deadlines and keeps us accountable. One of the ways to boost productivity is to work alongside other artists, sharing a studio or, if you can’t do that, be a part of an online community that you check in with your progress regularly.
You can take part in an Instagram challenge, a Facebook page that gives out a daily or a weekly drawing prompt, or any other project you can post on your social media to keep you accountable - but once you post, get the heck out of there, before you fall into a scrolling trap, that ultimate time waster (don’t we all just love watching those 10 second art tutorials though, that has to count as research, right?)
To help you stay away from internet during your most productive hours you can block certain apps on your phone and restrict calls, pings and other alerts when it’s time to work - I’ve designed a few wallpapers you can program on your iPhone, using Focus function and they will pop up at certain times of day - download them here.
Like creativity, productivity can’t be forced by formatting it into a scheduled time frame. It can’t always be measured by quantity, the number of book spreads drawn or character sketches finished. Yes, it helps to set those numbers when you’re working on a large project so you can keep the deadlines and stay on schedule, but sometimes productivity is all about taking a break.
Sometimes my day will go by without having anything to show at the end, no sketches, no finished drawings. Does that mean it was an artistically unproductive day? Definitely not. I probably took an extra long walk with my dog that day, enjoying sunny weather after a long period of rain. I listened to the birds, took in fresh air, made some quick audio recordings on my phone, before I forget, about the changes I want in my picture book manuscript. I picked up some pretty pebbles and twigs that inspired me to try out a new colour palette. By taking a break from being productive I will double my results in the next days. Productivity comes in uneven bursts and that’s ok.
If you’d like to read what other Illoguild members wrote about productivity, check out this month’s illoguild post.
You can also join our feee February live zoom, where we’ll discuss this topic in a round table chat and you can join in with questions. Register below!
Illoguild talks productivity
Lovely and very helpful insights! I have the same issue with lots of time, so I've started setting a timer for 45 minutes at a time - it keeps me focused and stops me from "just quickly checking my email" or getting a coffee. But I definitely DON'T do the housework... 🙄
I'm definitely going to read that book, I love to plan and in fact I prefer to plan tasks for each week instead of per day so I think it will be perfect for me.
As for the internet, I use the digital wellness tool on my phone to set timers for the apps where I tend to waste the most time (mainly tiktok and twitter!) that has really helped me to find other ways to distract myself haha.
I also love https://pomodoro-tracker.com/ when I need to work. knowing when I'm going to have my next break helps me stay focused.