How to Find Time to Be Creative
Is it possible to run a successful art business and still find time to create art? I’ve been asked a lot lately about how to balance your time between creating and the business side of an art business, and finding time to do all those tasks that are necessary for us to sell our art. Here are some tips to help you manage the juggle between business and creativity, and still find time to be creative.
Firstly, declutter your space. Make sure you have a dedicated space set up, whether you have your own bespoke art studio or just a spare room in the house, and that’s going to be much easier for you then to get started.
Declutter your mind. Have some kind of practice in the morning, whether it’s in your mindfulness or doodling or meditation or some other kind of self-care practice that gets you in the right frame of mind to get stuck in with the day.
Have a plan. Even the loosest of plans can give you a focus for the day, for the week or for the month. Work out wat you want to achieve and work towards that.
How to Use Time Blocking to Get Ahead
Schedule out your working time into blocks so that you have, say, two hours on one task and then three hours on another task. This is a really good way to get organised. If we are constantly trying to flip cognitively or mentally between creating in that state of flow and then suddenly changing our mind into a business mindset, then it’s not very efficient at all. You could maybe have a business morning where you have three hours set aside to tackle all things business related and then you have a chunk of two hours where you just have creative play in the studio. Whatever time is available to you throughout your week and throughout your day, just split it into the tasks that you know need doing for your own wellbeing.
To take your business forward you’ve got to show up. I know there’s a lot of talk lately about making sure you’re in alignment with what feels right. If you have dedicated studio time pencilled in, don’t wait until you feel in alignment for it because it’s not always the case. Sometimes we just have to go in and get stuck in. We can’t just wait for alignment and inspiration to happen. So if you have three hours scheduled or an hour scheduled and you don’t feel like it, no excuses – you turn up anyway and you just get things done.
Blocking out time is great for things like product photography or social media content, which you can create in bulk. It doesn’t mean that you have to schedule it there and then. You can schedule it using an auto-scheduler if you want, but it doesn’t mean you have to. If you are somebody who kind of likes to be a little bit more intuitive and impulsive, plan out your content for the week or for the two weeks and just have it there as a framework. Know what kind of points you want to address, have some information that you want to cover in the actual posts and have the photographs there ready and feel free to just post it in the moment, if you want to. This is all about how to find time to be creative!
How to Save Time on Social Media
On the subject of social media, set aside time to spend on there. If we’re constantly going on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, whatever it is, to post, to interact, to do this, that, and the other, it’s another little distraction throughout the day. Just that tiny distraction is enough to pull you away from the amazing work that you could be creating. And I don’t know about you but I disappear down rabbit holes when I’m on social media. So it’s limiting that time – set a timer if you have to!
Bulk create your social media content according to what your plan is for the month or for the six months, and make sure that content is all aligned and fits in.
How to Bulk Create Product Photographs
Another thing you can create in bulk is your product photographs. That might be photographs for your website or it might be photographs for so some social media, but make sure you take the time to actually set up and say, right, okay, I’m going to get some props together. I’m going to get some pieces together, do some work-in-progress shots, do some flat lays, all those kinds of things and actually bulk-do your photographs. If you’re constantly stopping to take photographs, it just disrupts the flow of creating.
How to Make Time for Admin
Another thing that you can do in bulk as well is to have a dedicated time in the week to do all your kind of business and admin-related tasks, such as ordering supplies, doing any kind of development work that you need on the business or actually creating your website listings. Have a set time, such as a morning or afternoon during the week that you do these tasks makes it so much easier. If you just get into a little routine, you’ll find that everything kind of feeds each other. It all works really nicely and you’re not having to stop and start and stop and start, and be really disjointed, which basically means that you don’t really do a very good job of anything ’cause you’re constantly switching between these mindsets!
Cut Out Distractions
And finally, my last tip is just to turn off distractions. Stop looking at all those other artists doing things that you wanted to try. Stop comparing yourself to other people on social media and seeing how much further they are ahead. Being in groups that you don’t necessarily get any value from or don’t serve you – cut them out, just take the information and the things that serve you and just stay laser focused on getting to where you want to be.
How to Find Time to be Creative
It can be a juggle to find time to be creative, but I hope that this blog post helps. I just wanted to share some tips on how to combine the business side of things with the creative side of things so that you don’t have to constantly jump from one mindset to the other and you still get lots achieved. Let me know below if you found this helpful, and don’t forget about my Passion into Profit Programme which will help you create the art business you’ve always dreamed of.
If you are serious about turning your art into a part or full-time income check out my free masterclass for some inspiration to get you started!
Here’s what those who watched my free masterclass went on to achieve...
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“I went from $30 in a year to $9000 in one month! I never thought it was possible to earn that much in a month” Jay
“I made my course investment back within 4 weeks and had made it back five times over, just eight weeks after the programme!” Lynsay
“I would totally refer Amanda’s course to anyone wanting help setting up or growing their art business – she has been amazing! I went from zero sales to selling a painting for £5500!” Solly
“I sold out of 2 art retreats in LESS than 24hrs!” Debs
