How to Learn Good Time Management (You too can have time for petting goats!)

Time Management is a tricky beast. While it can appear to be something you are “just good at” or “just bad at”, ultimately it is a skill that takes time to learn and develop. You need time to learn how to handle time.

Here I am petting a goat with all my extra time!

Why time management is important in the art industry.

Let’s say you get offered a job. If you can manage your time well, then you are responsible. If you are responsible, you will get your work done well and on time. If you do your work well, you will get hired for more work. If you get hired for more work, you get a promotion. If you get a promotion, you can retire and live off of a diet of liquid doughnuts (every artist’s dream). However if you are bad at managing time, at the same job suddenly you turn in work you aren’t proud of, you miss deadlines. You get a write-up. You lose your job. The next job that comes along you repeat the same pattern. Suddenly people know your habits and won’t hire you again. You must retire with no liquid doughnuts. I’ve gotten a few assignments at my job because other people failed to turn them in on time, and I got called to do it because my art director knew I was reliable.

Why school teaches you bad habits

There is a weird culture in art school where it’s “cool” to wait until the last minute to do your entire thesis project, staying up 5 nights in a row, guzzling energy drinks, just to slide in at the last minute with a less than stellar, and less than complete final grade. You get a passing grade anyway and still graduate. This is extremely unrealistic for post-grad life success though. If you do that for an employer you will be fired. So don’t post on facebook about how little sleep you’ve gotten and brag about how you’ve gotten nothing done until now. If an employer sees that, they won’t hire you. Or more likely, your classmates will see that and brand you as irresponsible, and not suggest you for a future job.

I’m bad at Time Management, what does this mean for me?

Well, it means 1 of 2 things. 1.) Art isn’t the right career for you. The reason you don’t spend time on it is because you don’t really want it, but you haven’t admitted it to yourself yet. Or, 2.) You need to learn good time management! Here’s some ways you can start:

Tricks for good Time Management.

1.)  Figure out a realistic schedule and stick to it. You can make a schedule day by day, week by week or even break it down into hours, find out what works for you.

2.)  Take breaks. Part of what makes good time management so hard is that people bite off more than they can chew and don’t allow any time to rest. Because of this, they were doomed to fail from the start. Allow time for small breaks at regular intervals where you won’t feel overworked or unmotivated, and don’t feel guilty about taking your breaks.

3.)  Listen to your creative energy. If you find yourself getting burnt out on a project, take a few minutes to step away and get your creative juices flowing in a different way. Whether you sketch from life, doodle from imagination, write or sculpt something, it'll make going back to work that much more fresh. 

4.)  Take care of yourself! Make sure to get enough sleep every night. Try to get to bed and get up at the same time every day. Get enough food to eat and don’t go hungry while you work. When you feel the best, you’ll work the best.

5.)  Eliminate distractions. Try to work in a quiet area, log out of facebook, put your phone on silent and turn off Netflix. The more brain power you give to your work, the better. This also gives you a great opportunity to reward your hard work with a quick facebook break, or a couple texts.

6.)  Learn how to work faster. Part of time management is just being able to work at a speed where you have more time to do things, whether it’s just a safety buffer of time at the end of assignment, or time to take a walk and de-stress.

7.)  Break down work into many small goals. I spend a lot of time staring blankly at my drawing, not knowing what to do next. I try to minimize the time my pencil is lifted from the page by breaking down my work into super simple goals. For example, if I am drawing a scene of a forest, I will first draw all the trees, then all the leaves, then all the bushes, then all the flowers, the rocks, etc, etc until the picture is complete. It sounds basic, but it frees up my mind to just keep moving as I work instead of constantly battling with what to do next.

 

Good time management is not something you will learn overnight. If you don’t get it right away, that’s okay. Breaking anything down into small achievable goals makes everything easier. If you always turn assignments in late, make a goal to turn every one in 30 minutes early, then go up from there. It can happen! As always, email me with any questions or if you are interested in other time management tips. Thanks for reading!