How to finish your projects.
How to finish your projects
About a year ago I started thinking about what would be the best way to accomplish my New Years resolutions which usually include the classics: start exercising, eating healthy-er, and becoming the best artist I can be. As you try to grow in whatever area you are trying to improve, there comes a point where just thinking about doing it does not actually make it so. You have to actually set up goals in order to achieve them. This is where the challenge lies because people are creatures of habit. We go through our days doing the same things each day as we settle in our comfort zones. We will go to our graves doing our daily rituals, from waking up, brushing our teeth, and going to work to finally coming home, having dinner, and watching that new Netflix series we are so hooked on. And what do all of these things have in common? (Other than the fact that we all have our favorite procrastinating habit)
They take up time. Precious and irreplaceable time.
When you work in a creative field, time is your most valuable commodity. If left unchecked, one can become a slave to a daily routine, not knowing what drives your day, your activities, and your projects. How you manage your time determines how much you get done in a day and this directly influenced by the types of habits (good or bad) that you develop during your lifetime.
So back to my New Years resolutions.
Every year I also have many different ideas on how I will tackle the struggle of keeping a healthy life as a husband, a productive career as an artist, and how to get-that-dough, or like they say here in Mexico: “going after the pork chop”. There is so much to be done that one cannot hope to accomplish everything at once. This is where I get “Analysis Paralysis”. So, baby steps to the elevator; I started by doing research on how to be more productive on the nearest source of knowledge available to almost anyone: Youtube.
Sounds funny, but Youtube is where I found the answer I was looking for. While typing “how to be more productive” on the search bar, I stumbled upon a video titled “How to Read Books Faster”. This is where I fell deep down the rabbit hole. One video led to another and suddenly, I started finding info on how you can change the way you do things by modifying your behavior in your daily routine. And everything starts with these little things called habits.
But what does this have to do with finishing my comic book you say? Well, in fact, everything. As I mentioned before, time is a scarce commodity. The only way to finish drawing or writing those pages is to make time to focus on small actions that will lead to bigger results. In other words, eliminate all of those time wasting behaviors to make room for productive new habits that will lead you to your goals.
And while talking about changing habits is a whole other subject on its own, worthy of its own post, I prefer to stick with telling you guys and gals a couple of actionable tips to help you finish your latest personal project without dying in the process. Spoiler alert, you will indeed die several times. But this is OK. When this happens, just get up as fast as you can and start over again. That is the nature of being an artist, to fail over and over until you start failing less and learning life lessons on the way.
Write things down. Sounds kinda dumb to say this, but it is imperative to write things down. Whenever you come up with a new idea, a cool concept or you feel that there is a lot that you need to accomplish, write it down. When you write things down you take them out of your head, you reduce anxiety, and you to stay more organized. The ten thousand step journey starts with just one, so when you start, write a list of the steps you need to follow in order to accomplish your goal. Write preferably on paper or you can use your favorite app of choice. Now its time to take action.
Break things down. As I mentioned before, when you have a ton of things to do, the best thing is to break them down into smaller chunks. Once you have them written it down, start doing things by priority and looking for the most basic thing you need. What do I need to do to start this story? How do I tackle this new commission? How can I get better at my basic drawing? Identify the very first thing to do and start small. Once you get that thing done, put a check mark next to it and move on to the next thing.
Wake up before dawn. Make no mistake, life happens no matter what. There will always be something that messes up your day. So what happens when you lose time like this? You have to adapt and move on. This is when waking up early can save you. I usually wake up at 5.30am which gives me time to practice figure drawing before my wife wakes up. You might not be an early bird, but the point is that set up your schedule so that you make time to work on whatever project you are looking to delve more into. If you have interest in something, you will make time for it.
Eyes on the prize. Whatever your goal may be, always remember what drives you to stay motivated. There will be good times and there will be hard times ahead. At the end of the day, nothing good comes easy and it will require sacrifices one way to another. I’m not saying you need to stop playing video games or going out with your friends, but this will probably happen when you have to meet your deadline. The key is to achieve a balance between your personal time and your work time, which is a challenge by itself. No matter what, always remember why you are doing what you are doing.
Ask other artists. As with everything, if you want to change something you need to know how it works. For me it was Youtube and learning about what habits do for your routine. But that was just the beginning. You can ask other artists what helps them to stay motivated, on time, to meet deadlines, and be a professional. You would be amazed to know what you can find out if you ask nicely.
Most of the information I included here I have gotten from experience and from other sources. In your quest to find out more about productivity, I recommend the following books:
Atomic Habits by James Clear. It changed the way I see my time and the things I do with it. The Power of Habits by Charles Duhigg. It will make you think different about what you do.
Funny thing is, while writing this entry, by accident I clicked on another blog post of a terrific artist, Djamila Knopf. She talks about her way to stay organized. It has some very good tips and I related to several of them. You might too. Go check it out.
Do you know any productive artists out there? What helps you to finish your projects?
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If you want to watch the Spanish version of this post, go here.