Artists are notorious for making excuses about why they shouldn’t spend time marketing their art work. The main excuse, after the “selling out” argument, is that they don’t have time to market because of the pressure of producing their art. I am not going to ask you to take less time over your art, but to eliminate the time wasting activities that we all tend have. Sometimes time wasting is just a matter of habit. Because you have always done things in a certain way doesn’t mean that it is the correct way to do them. Changing some of your habits could give you more time for your work and your marketing.
The biggest time waster is spending far too much time on your email. Ask yourself how many times a day do you check your email. If you are checking more than twice a day , Why? Do you check before looking at higher priority projects? I think that it is important to have email free times during the day. Consider checking your email twice a day. Inform your contacts that you are only checking at certain times and they will work around this.
Another major time waster is the telephone. If you cannot resist answering the ‘phone when it rings turn it off altogether. Set up a very polite message on your answer phone saying that you are not available at this time, but if you are left a message you will get back to them as soon as possible.
Do people turn up at your studio unannounced? Often friends think that because you work from home that you will have time to talk to them. This is most definitely a “no-no.” This is not an easy problem to solve because if you lock your doors you stop prospective buyers from turning up. Let your friends know that you are a working artist between such and such a time and that you will see them at out of studio hours. I sell my work directly from my studio and consequently have people coming into the studio that are interested in the work but obviously have no intentions of buying anything. After chatting for a while I politely tell them that I have a deadline for this present work and that they are welcome to spend time looking around but I need to get on. I always try to get a contact email address in order to let them know about any future paintings that may interest them. This way it shows that I am interested in them but I have to get on with the work.
Try not to take on projects that are going to be at the expense of your more important assignments. If you are asked to help with something that is going to take up too much of the time that you need for your day job politely refuse by explaining that you have too much on at the moment but you will probably have time to help with future projects.
I am not asking you to drop your responsibilities, but to question how much of your time do you waste by performing unnecessary acts, and to eliminate anything that wastes your precious time.
