Back in The Saddle

Whenever I go out of town it takes me a while to get "back in the saddle" upon my return. I travel a lot but it's unusual when I am gone for longer than a week. After spending two weeks in New Zealand I had a lot to do to get back on track. Not to mention pretty awful jet lag.

What are some of the things you should do to get your art business organized when you return from a trip?

The first thing is pretty obvious and that is to go through the mail, check messages and check email. Things have changed in that now when we travel we can easily stay on top of of email and messages. I barely remember the days when a return from vacation meant dealing with hundreds of emails. (Thank heavens for cell phones!)

After I caught up on mail and a few phone messages, I cleaned out my studio. Things were pretty crazy in the Carriage House before I left and by crazy, I mean that my studio was a mess! So I spent a few hours and fortunately, my studio looks great again.

The last thing I do when I get back from a trip is to schedule out my calendar. I have an editorial calendar for my blog and I am now scheduled out for five weeks. (What that means is that I have scheduled all of my blog topics for the next five weeks. I love being organized and ahead of schedule!) I also go through my calendar and schedule out projects and appointments for the next month.

Having a regular routine when you return from a trip can really take the hassle out of traveling. My only issue is that I need more time at home. I leave again this weekend. I am heading to Atlanta as I have a boot camp scheduled next week! So it looks like I get to go through this routine all over again next weekend! OMG.