On last week's Artists Helping Artist's show we proposed a unique idea for setting goals in 2017. Instead of making a list of a few goals we proposed a twelve-month plan to organize your art business. We proposed twelve ideas you can accomplish each month to organize your art business. Of course in a perfect world we all would like to complete all of these items in January of 2017. But it's just not possible. Because some of these projects are really big.

I do think we all need to pick twelve projects specifically suited to our own art businesses. But feel free to use as many of our ideas as you want. Just pick twelve and then schedule one for each month of the new year.

For January we proposed the goal to "Organize your art office”.
This means organizing your file folders. Throw out the ones you don’t use and don’t need. Set up new folders to organize the piles of information sitting on your desk or in your studio. You also need new 2017 folders for expenses, art shows, etc. It’s time to get the business side of your art business organized.  And this shouldn’t take too long. (Which is a good thing because month #2 is a big one.) 

Are you going to give it a try? I am so excited to get started right away.

Believe it or not, there are only 31 days until 2017. Yikes! What that means is you kind of need to start thinking about goals for next year. Like this week. Or today.

As artists, we aren't naturally inclined to put together a list of goals for next year. Rather, we would more likely come up with some really cool ideas for new paintings. (And there is nothing wrong with that.)

But in order to focus on growing your art business, you kind of need some goals. The idea is that goals give you a path to move forward. They can motivate you to try new ideas. They can help you get organized to finally accomplish all those things that you know you need to get done.

Sound good? (If not, please reread my last paragraph. If that still doesn't work, try reading it again.)

At this point you still have 31 days to get your list together. Ideally you might want to come up with 4 - 5 goals. Some can be short term and some should be more long term. Designate a place to write down your thoughts. In a week we will revisit this and see what progress you have made.

​Time to get to work.

I have had a lot of inquiries about the new planner I ordered from Moleskin. It's called the Moleskin Weekly Notebook and love it! I ordered the small size which is 3.5" x 5.5" and it fits in my purse. Of course I ordered the teal colored one. The reason I like the daily planner is because it has lots of space to write appointments for the seven days of the week on the left side and a place for to-do's on the right side. I absolutely love it. ( uploaded a photo of the inside of the Moleskin but I am sorry if it's hard to see the details.)

I finally figured out that I needed a physical notebook to organize all of my to-do lists. And it's important to me that I get to cross out my completed tasks! I use my phone and computer for all of my appointments but this planner is what really keeps me organized! I bought my Moleskin on Amazon. The one I ordered is here:

They also have an extra large one that measures 7.5" x 10" and you can find it on Amazon here:

It's hard to believe it is almost time for the holidays and a new year! I am just happy I am now very organized.

Ugh. I think one of the most frustrating things we all deal with is trying to stay organized. Specifically I am referring to keeping to-do lists, calendar items, appointments and big picture items organized. And all in one place. And the biggest issue we face? We are all creative people so we like everything to be out in front of us. Because once it's filed away then we suffer from out of site, out of mind.

I have tried binders. I have tried memo books. I have put everything in many different electronic formats. And yet, nothing is working.

I do like having all of my appointments in my phone/desktop calendar. But then I have my daily to-do lists and the long term projects that I also want to have at my fingertips. I think both of these need to be in written form. I just get too much satisfaction crossing things off. And I don't want to give that up!

So I am going to try yet another system (I promise to share after I try it) but I would really like to hear what all of you are doing to keep your life organized. Please help!