I have spent years in and out of the military managing my own time from flying over a target within 5 seconds of the planned time to managing my personal itinerary over half the world, coordinating with relatives, booking flights, accom, things to do, finding a job etc etc. I set goals, I set time limits to realise them and I make sure they are realistic, I just did it naturally as that is what drove me........BUT what I didn't CONSCIOUSLY realise is that managing your time is a full time job when it doesn't come naturally and for me, creativity and time management have never been a natural partnership.
I have noticed that in order to let my creativity flow I need to turn off to the world outside and just let it happen, allow myself to feel happy or sad or whatever it is I feel that day and work with that in the studio or here on my blog or the website. Now that could be argued as a requirement for the job and I would agree......but and this is a big but.......where does the creativity need to get turned off and the business head turned on? That is what I have struggled with whilst setting up this company and I am sure many others do too.
At first I thought it best to just go with what I felt like on the day (surely that is the luxury of working from home and being an ARTIST no?), if I felt creative I would go to the studio and work and if not I would stay in and do computer work\bookkeeping. Sounds good but didn't work, I ended up indoors a lot, watching the TV, baking and not bookkeeping.
I started to read success stories from other small businesses and bloggers and I noticed a theme, many of them had children and thus a set routine, emails in the morning, making things in the afternoon and packing in the evening and of course they worked it all around the children. I wondered how they managed to find the time to do it all when I don't have any kids and struggle to get out of bed some days! But then it dawned on me (and it's not rocket science) they have limited hours in their day.......they had time management forced upon them all the time and the creativity was not on tap or free flowing it was more given a chance once a day to rear it's strange head and play...and that worked for them........time to give that a go me thinks (the routine not the kids!).
Now I know you are all thinking 'doh, we learnt that at primary school' but it's so different when you have to actually instigate it for yourself and discipline yourself (no teachers here)and there is no motivation around other than yourself (even travelling there are always others around to tap in to)so here I am forcing myself to get up at 6am everyday with the husband and stick to a routine, computer work in the morning but with a strict cut-off time (or I seem to disappear in to the ether for hours on end) followed by exercise (cross country skiing these days) followed by the afternoon in the studio.
Well it's only few days in to it and already I feel like I am gaining ground on everything.....I am almost excited that I can see the potential for my new website to be up and running and a routine whereby I make something, photograph it and post it up all within a week. I even have a new Facebook page for my business where I can separate my business affairs from my personal, hurrah.
So time management, tricky little devil if you take your eyes off it for too long or even misinterpret how to best use it for yourself.....even in the name of creativity. I have found that in order to tap in to my creativity and keep momentum within the business I need structure to tell me when it's time to do those things, even the deadline to get off the computer drives me to finish my web updates first instead of wondering off to Facebook and as for the creativity well that just pours out of me the minute I see my stones in the studio so right now I have no problem with that....more with putting the lid back on it in the evenings ;o)
Time management is so personal to everyone, as with the ladies with children who also run their businesses, there are often factors beyond our control that drive our choice of how we manage it but when you find yourself with the luxury of being able to choose it entirely for yourself it then gets really personal....you need to tap in to yourself and know what you need to get the best from yourself...AND JUST DO IT! Nike spokes girl maybe?
See you next week
No comments:
Post a Comment