Transcription
Instead of having to go quickly from a call into creative work, back to a call, then to an errand, it's best to schedule blocks of calls and then a separate time stretch for creative work.
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Neighborhood, neighborhood art supply, supply.
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How to create more time to make the things that you love making. Often at The Cult Creatives, we hear from artists, both new and seasoned, that the main thing that they struggle with is finding the time for their art inside of all the responsibilities of life. In this video, I'm going to discuss various methods of things that have helped me and the artists we work with create more time for their art and more time to make the things that they love.
Number one: Know Thyself. The most important aspect of leveraging your time is knowing yourself and knowing how you work. Think of your past and moments when you've accomplished hard things. What allowed you to do that? Ask yourself these questions: Are you the type of person that creates better work under pressure or when you can chip away at your own pace? Are you more of a habitual person where you do the same thing day in and day out, or are you more free where every day is different from the last? Do you enjoy locking in into something for days, weeks, maybe even months? Do you find that you create better work in the morning, midday, or evening? Do you find that you create better work at home, or maybe outdoors, or maybe at a place like a coffee shop filled with people? The answers to these questions will play a key role in creating the rhythm of your days and weeks.
Number two: Creating a Rhythm. Most of the creatives and artists that I know who have high outputs and are extremely efficient usually have a consistent rhythm to how they work. We have some clients where they'll work on music for two weeks for a few hours each day, creating new demos and new ideas, and then bring one or two of those ideas to a finishing place. Usually, of those one or two ideas, they'll then choose one, and then for the next two weeks, they'll work on the content that will accompany the song that they just finished. We have other clients that will spend three months in the writing process, creating six months worth of music, and then they'll take the next three months and work on the content for that six-month stretch. So, these artists are using a banking method where they're banking the music and banking the content, and then it allows them another six months worth of time to create the next batch. We have other clients that have more of a week focus. They'll create a rhythm where Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are for music, and then Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays are for content. Everyone is different in their process, but the most important thing is to know what gets the best out of you.
Number three: Grouping Similar Tasks Together. When thinking about scheduling, try to find days or time stretches where your brain is playing in the same sandbox. Instead of having to go quickly from a call into creative work, back to a call, then to an errand, it's best to schedule blocks of calls and then a separate time stretch for creative work. For me, I like setting my days up where I have a primary focus. Mondays, I'm the most fresh, so I reserve those days for deep creative work, and I have zero calls. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are for client calls and the different responsibilities that I have with the agency. Thursdays are generally used for pre-production, and then Fridays, we generally have productions: music videos, photo shoots, podcast interviews, etc. And lastly, I know that many people don't have this luxury, but I'm very intentional about my weekends, and that time is reserved for my family and also recharging my own batteries.
Number four: Time Blocking. Once you have a sense of your rhythm and you've organized your style of how you're going to accomplish your creative tasks, you can then begin to time block. There's so many different apps, softwares, and tools out there to help you organize your time. For me, I keep it super simple. I have a color-coded Google Calendar, and then that pairs with Asana, our project management tool. I use Asana to keep track of my tasks and projects, and whatever's there finds its way into my Google Calendar based on priority. So, I'm a little crazy with this. I have time blocks for everything: where my sleep mostly lives, my snacks, what am I eating, breaks, walks, meditation, all of that stuff finds its way into my time blocks. I time block taking my daughter to school, and I even time block reading her bedtime stories. This may sound intense and a bit rigid with all the time blocking, but not only do I feel more effective, I actually have more time to do the things that I enjoy doing. I've been an artist of some kind my entire adult life. I tried all different styles of art and different art mediums, and what I found before I time-blocked that I was a chronic procrastinator. I think I made the procrastination a bit of a game where I would lag on something and then try to do it at the last second to make the game-winning buzzer shot. I'm actually at a point in my life and business now where I'll set meetings, and those meetings are 10-minute meetings. Very often, you'll set a meeting that's a 30-minute meeting or a 60-minute meeting. When the meeting doesn't need to be 30 minutes or 60 minutes, you can absolutely get done in 10. And with all this organization, I feel better doing the task that I'm doing. I feel like it's a kind gesture that I'm doing for my future self and the life that I'm about to live.
Number five: Plan Ahead. For me, I'm crazy about planning and the future because I believe that the only way that you can make your visions a reality is through planning. Even if plans change, which they will, having a rough roadmap of how you're going to get where you want to go is key. For me, I have plans that are 10-year plans, I have five-year plans, I have one-year plans, I have one-month focuses, and all of those plans allow me to look at the macro and the micro of what's going on in my life. I also will have a week focus, and normally what I do with my weeks is that Sunday evenings, sometimes Monday mornings, I'll time block my week. So I'm looking at my week, assessing what I'm trying to accomplish for that week, and based on what items are priority, that then informs how I should time block the week.
Number six: Leveraging Time. So, when I'm assessing my week, the very first thing that I look at is all the different items and tasks and to-dos, and which of those do I actually need to do? Which of those needs to be me doing it? Time is the most valuable thing that we have, and I'm so blessed that I've got to work with these high-output individuals. And one of the main things I learned from them is they would look at the things that they enjoy doing, that they wanted to do, and then also the things that would make them effective in what they were trying to accomplish, and those would be the things that they would focus on, and they would give everything else away. Now, not everybody's in a position where they can give away the things that they don't want to do, but assessing where you may be able to leverage your time is a great way to create more time for your art and the things that you're trying to accomplish. There's a great saying that says, "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."
Number seven: Efficient Versus Effective. While listening to a Jay Shetty podcast, he talked about being efficient versus being effective. He spoke about how being efficient is getting all of your to-dos done and then feeling the pride of checking all those things off the list. But when you're being effective, you're moving the ball downfield towards the bigger goals and dreams that you have.
Number eight: Learning to Say No. For me, this is one of the hardest shifts to make because it's part of my personality that I have a desire to be helpful. I would commit to all sorts of things that A, I didn't really want to do, or B, I shouldn't really be doing. Something that was helpful for me in this shift was the time blocking. I would time block and create space for my friends, family, and fun things to do. And if it didn't fall in line, I would let the person know who was inviting me that unfortunately, I was committed to something else, even if that commitment was just watching Netflix with my wife. Learning how to say no will absolutely create more time to make your art and focus on your dreams.
Number nine: Taking Breaks to Recharge. I'm sure you can tell by listening to this episode that I'm a person who likes to create and accomplish things. I've struggled a lot through the years with taking on too much and burning out. But thankfully, my wife and business partner, Lindsay, has shown me so many ways to recharge my body and my mind. I'm an artist and creative person, much like many of the people listening to this episode, and I absolutely know the feeling of finding a creative spark and then going on a run and riding that spark as long as I can. But what I've learned to notice is when I start to have that burnout feeling coming on, even if I'm in the creative process, I'll take a mental note that I felt that feeling of burnout coming. That mental note then cues me to know when I'm done. I need to do something to recharge my battery: meditation, sauna, cold plunge, exercise, a walk, or going to a movie or seeing art. These kind of things help me recharge my battery. I've learned that my output and overall well-being is so much better when I approach creating with the concept of breathing: breathing in energy, and breathing out energy out. You have to have both.
As a final note, everything that I've explained here has drastically changed my effectiveness in life and as an artist, and also my overall well-being. It is important to say, though, that I'm not perfect, far from it, actually. And often, there are things that I have time-blocked that I end up not getting to because there's another hot item that requires my attention, and then I have to shift my day towards that. But to me, and I time block aggressively, if I accomplish 80% of what I laid out for the week, that week is a win. It's far more than I ever accomplished back in the days when I didn't schedule and things were more loose. I hope this helps you think about your own time and how you can create more of it to go make and build the things you love. Thanks for watching. See you next time.
Ever wonder how to truly cut through the noise and get your music to a broader audience? The Cult Creatives is a niche agency servicing the communities and brands surrounding the spaces of music and fashion. Our unique backgrounds of being highly involved with some of the largest music and fashion brands in the world gives us a unique perspective on how to connect creatives with their audiences. We offer a variety of services including creative direction, design, photography, videography, and strategy. Head to TheCultCreatives.com to learn more. The Cult Creatives, not to be replicated, but if you try, we wouldn't blame you.
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