I’m the Creative Director of a community mural project here in Ames and what started out as a “easy project”, is now a massive project involving 8 organizations, the Public Arts Commission, and loads of volunteers. We collected tons of community feedback on what they want the mural to look like and I compiled them into one unified design. I’m pretty impressed with how it turned out…. after about 70 hours of work on just the design (research, source photos, drawing, etc etc etc).

Check that craziness out. That will soon be this:

We are going to start scraping and prepping the wall on Friday and then painting hopefully by Monday.

I have an amazing team of people working to make this project a success. I could have never done it on my own. Crystal Tice is definitely the chief Wrangler, Melissa Tedone has amazing work grant writing and making sure everyone and their mother knows about this project, Christina S. has listened for most likely more than her fair share of hours to all the ups and downs of this project as well as support and news spreading and planning, Dan Brown has done miracles getting all of our supplies donated so I don’t front all the money for this thing, and me, well, I’m coordinating, designing, and corralling all the volunteers to get it up on the actual wall.

We are now accepting donations for the project via check (make out to Ames Collaborative Art) or paypal (click here). Send any donations to 2321 N. Loop #102 Ames, IA 50010. You can read more about the project on AmesCart.org.

I have to say that starting out my year drawing every day sure made me feel a million times more confident in myself to draw this beast out. And that project has changed a bit too. I’ve decided it would be disingenuous to say I kept drawing every day, but I think that tells a story in and of itself. I’m going to just start numbering them and see how many I get by the end of this year. I think it will more honestly illustrate the adventure of my life.

Like this last month, not nearly as much drawing — because I got really sick, was designing a mural/coordinating a mural/putting out an issue of clm/birthdays/stress and some other fun things I can’t tell you about until they are a sure deal. Oh yeah, and writing a book too!

Drawing posts will be resuming soon, I’m looking forward into getting back into my drawing groove.

Kristin

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It’s the same situation I talked about last week with the schedule. Because I’m self employed I don’t HAVE to do anything at any particular time during my day. Sure there are things I should do and eventually if I put things off I’ll reach a crisis point where I’m scrambling.

Last year I tried out the Fly Lady for my home and have decided that it’s worth trying at work too. It really does work. By having a concentrated burst for daily tasks, I’ve been able to spend as little time on them as possible so I can move on the fun (or not so fun depending on what needs to be done) projects, working ahead on posts, or being in the studio flexing my creative muscles.

If I spend 6 hours of my day packing orders, answering emails, and scrambling to get a post up, it doesn’t leave time for long term projects, tasks, or just free time to be inspired (which is where my best ideas come from!).

The fly lady divides these daily tasks (or routines) into a morning, afterwork, and bedtime routine. I’m going more simple than that for work (though I do the three for home). It’s basically a list of all the things I have to do each day and tend to spread out over the day instead of just getting them done.

Setting up Your Daily Task List

Make a list of everything you HAVE to do each day. This can be all sorts of tasks. You can get as specific or general as you need to. And don’t forget to add in some time to foster your creativity (which is an important daily practice).

1. Put on studio shoes – inspired by Mr Rogers, I have studio shoes (especially in the winter) that I slide into so my feet are comfy warm and I’m not tracking snow everywhere.

2. Start up Timer – on my Macbook I was using Chronograph, but now that I’m using the PC for work, I found this great time tracker called ManicTime – it’s perfect for how I work and I actually recommend more than the former.

3. Check email – scan through my email and reply immediately to anything I can as quickly as I can; make a list of emails that need a longer reply, but not necessarily today (just so they don’t get lost in the backlog of my inbox)

4. Pack up all orders – Most mornings I have at least a zine or two to pack up and send out, I drop them off at the mail box down the street before the daily pick up at 3pm.

5. Catch up on rss feeds – I use the list view in Google Reader and expand out anything that peeks my interest and mark the rest as read. This is really important to do on a daily basis. It’s inspiring + keeps me up to date on the crafterdom I am a part of

6. Write a post – if I don’t have one already scheduled for today, I’ll finish it up and post it. If I do have one already scheduled, I’ll write a new post or two, research/plan the next few posts upcoming, or clock some time on a more time intensive upcoming post (like a pattern, which usually equals playing in the studio, I like that).

These are the things I have to make sure to hit up each day, otherwise I start falling behind really quickly. It’s a great way to start the day and leaves all of my afternoon open for long term projects. Some days I finish everything in a half hour, other days it takes 3. But if I tackle it first thing, I feel like I’m ready to take on the world in that lovely afternoon time.

I just started using an Errand app on my ipod and I’ve set up the above daily tasks to repeat as a work related checklist. You can also jot it down in a notebook like the fly lady suggests. First page your daily schedule from last week’s post, next page your daily tasks.

Next week I’m going to talk about setting up those elusive weekly tasks. Things you don’t have to do daily, but if you don’t do them on a semi regular basis they become monumental (book keeping, promotion, cleaning up the studio, etc).

Check out the other parts of the Crafty Business Series: Part I

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The Crafty Business series has been dormant for awhile now so I’ve decided to bring it back just in time for hitting that reset button. Since being self employed entangles work and personal life so much, I’m going to address both sides: establishing a daily schedule you can actually stick to, establishing your daily/weekly/monthly tasks, lastly keeping healthy while getting work done (a huge struggle for me).  I’ll do one post on it each week (starting with today) through the end of January. If there is something in particular you would like me to focus my Crafty Business posts on in February, just leave a comment or send me an email: kristin {at} craftleftovers {dot} com.

It’s important to me to have a routine. My mom pointed out that since I was a kid, I would get crabby if I didn’t go to bed and get up at the same time each day. It’s still true! Since I do not HAVE to go anywhere or do anything at any particular time, but still have a lot of things I HAVE to do each day, what should my routine be? I think this is a problem for most of us who are self employed. This first Crafty Business post shows how I developed my schedule and made those seemingly ambiguous decisions in a systematic way.

I spent my days off during Christmas time coming up with a new work/workout/cleaning schedule. I decided that unless I get myself together I’m going to be miserable, tired, and perpetually running behind. That makes me stressed out and eventually leads to a crazy melt down. This process takes time, and it’s really only come into being because I kept a calendar pretty consistently for the last year. When it came time to nail down my schedule for the upcoming year, I had a good record to draw from.

Step 1: Set your Goals

This step is closely aligned with both steps 2 and 3 which will reflect what the goals for your day are, but it’s always a good idea to list them out. Screw what you have going on. This is where you list what you want to have going on!
1. Work 8 hours a day
2. Take time to workout
3. Take time to cook healthy food
4. Take the evenings off work so I have time to socialize, keep the apartment clean, and relax. I want to read a freaking book!

Step 2: Make a list of all the activities you have to do on a regular basis

This might seem like a no brainer, but it’s the most important step to making a schedule you can stick to. Don’t leave out that knit group you like to go to or it will botch your schedule every time it comes up (about every other week for me). For me my regular tasks are:

Work at the office – 8 hours a day
Workout – 1 1/2 hours (when I’ve changed, worked out, changed again, travel time)
Make a full dinner – 1 – 1 1/2 hours (about 4-5 times a week)
Meeting with the AP editorial staff – Tuesdays 6-7
City Council meeting – Tuesdays 7-9
Ames C.art Maker Nights on Thursdays – 6-9pm
Ames C.art Fiber Group every other Wednesday – 6-8pm
Ames C.art workshop – 2nd Sunday of each month from 1-4pm
Ames C.art Sew n’ Swap – 1 Saturday a month from 1-4pm

Step 3: Analyze the things you CAN change and schedule them where they make the most sense

Jason and I tend to workout at about 6-p.m., five days a week. We leave the office and go workout. Well, that doesn’t work because about 3 days a week I can’t go during that time and blow it off. It’s also not a good time for me to go if I plan to sticking to both my social/work plans and my health plans. What can I do? I can’t workout after 9 because then I won’t go to sleep at a decent time and I am already really tired.

The other thing I immediately see is that I tend to have a lot of stuff going on in the evening that tends to be more social. I shouldn’t depend on that time for “work” time.

So if I want to get 8+ hours in at the office working, I need to get there by 10am at the latest. That leaves the question, “When can I workout?” Is it possible to work it in? The only solution I see is to wake up early and go before I leave to work. This actually makes a lot of sense because working out makes me feel energized, hungry, and really positive. A very good way to start out my day.

Step 3: Mapping it out

Taking all that into account, here is what I came up with:

7:30 – wake up and go to the gym by 8:00
9:10 – eat snack, pack lunch
9:45 – go to work
12:00 – lunch (20 minutes is usually good for me)
5:00 – tidy up and wrap up any work things
6:00 – leave the office and go make dinner or have already eaten a packed meal and go be social
9:30 – take the rest of the evening off
11:30 – go to bed

And that’s it for today! Next week I’m going to write about how to establish your daily task list. It’s amazing how many “have to” tasks we have each day that cause the “should do soon or occasionally” tasks to get pushed to the side.

It feels good to be back on track again! I’ll see you all tomorrow!

Happy Crafting!
Kristin

ps – after today, craft business posts will be every Wednesday!

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