April 2022

There is an interesting article at Axisweb.org entitled “what do artists do all day?” It consists of a series of films about artists and their practice.

As an artist, creative, maker or designer you will probably have been asked that question many times by people who ‘don’t understand’. But have you ever asked yourself that question?

Creating is not only exhausting physically but also mentally sometimes we can find ourselves worn out without actually achieving anything. Spending your time wisely is important but often difficult to do.

When working with small business owners struggling to find enough time in the day to complete all the work, I usually ask them to complete a time diary. This is just a record of all the activities they complete and the time they take.

Its benefits are that: –

• It will help you identify activities that take up most of your time.
• Highlight the most productive times of the day.
• Enable you to make more efficient use of your time.

How to Keep a Time Diary

It’s not hard – all you need to do is note down when you start a task, when you finish it and what that task is. Ideally you should keep a time diary for a week but even keeping one for a day can make you aware of where your time is going.

People always say but I don’t have time, in reality you have plenty of time – it only takes a moment to note down when you start and end an activity and you’ll only be doing it for seven days. Think of it this way – a little effort now can give you huge rewards in the future.

Those rewards can include learning to be more disciplined about social media, only answering emails twice a day. The importance of batch production and if you work from home, separating work and home tasks.

Try it, you only need a notebook and a pen, it’s not necessary to create an elaborate chart, you will soon find out where your time is going – just don’t forget to log EVERYTHING.

Have a go.

Good Luck!

Liz.