Making the time for the creation of your art is the most challenging aspect of your career. Or so it has been for me. Time can escape us as we struggle with social, business and personal time management. We can get busy with tasks or allowing others to usurp our time leaving us to see our own art time dwindle. We have to prioritize our time so we can maximize the time in the goals for our art.

You have now solidly built the foundation for your art and where you want to take it. You know the steps you will need to take and how you will get there. Now comes the fun time.

You will need to look at each step, and plan out a weekly/daily schedule that will allow you to practice. You might find that by waking up 45-30 minutes earlier will give you a 1/2 hour to donate more time to a project/step. Or by planning your night time responsibilities better you can squeeze in more time for your art. Again this choice and how much time you donate for time management is your choice. Your goals and time management should mesh with your ultimate dreams. What I am talking about here is a balance with a realistic time management schedule for the goals you have set.

Personally I am an artist with many different types of art. I am a photographer, graphic artist, writer and spoken word performer. As well I serve on several art committees that work within our local community to improve the art opportunities for artists. As well my personal spiritual development is something I choose to include in my schedule. What works for me is determining what I want to accomplish each quarter and work towards that with my art goals.

While this works for me and my plans, another artist might want to see a more rapid completion for their dreams. Their time management would be different than mine or any other artist. We are not in competition here to finish before another artist. Rather this is meant to find the balance we need to see our personal art flourish as we choose. But we do need to make time for this. If we don’t, then our dreams dangle and fade away. Most of our unhappiness in life is due to our unrealized dreams. This workbook and the steps outlined are here so we can realize our true happiness with our art expressions.

Plan well, as this is your art!

Question: How many hours of practice a week will you need for your dream to be realized? How will you dedicate yourself to do this?

Question: What types of projects do you want to do?

Question: How much time do you want to commit to new work?

Question: List a weekly schedule that will include the hours you devote to editing, practicing, submitting works for review, researching, and promoting.

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This work is licensed by Mark Maxey under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 2.0), and is an Open Educational Resource.

Last edited by Mark Maxey on Jan 25, 2006 3:12 pm US/Central.