Getting my act together with goals and time management.

So it's been a week and I wanted to let you know what I've been up to this past few days.  With my new goal, I’ve been thinking about what direction to go with my painting.  So far here’s the list.

1. Painting bigger studio works, smaller plein air and still life.
2. Marketing and promoting better
3. Exploring avenues in which to sell and reach more collectors

If you read my previous blog entry, I’m setting myself on the projected path to painting full time.  It’s something I feel I’m ready to take on.  With that said, it will take a lot of time management skills on my part.  So I started researching what are good resources to become better at managing my time.  For those that know me, if you had to describe a characteristic about me, I’m guessing you would say that I look tired.  It usually is followed with I drink lots of coffee.  It’s true I’m always tired, staying up late to paint is tough, but I recognize that I need to manage my time better so that I can squeeze in more time to sleep.  

This is where I have my lunchtime siesta.

One thing I have adopted early on is bringing my lunch to work so I can eat and sleep in my truck.  It helps that I park in a garage, so finding a dark spot to park in is easy.  I tune in to an iPhone app called Nosili that allows me to create custom nature sounds to provide a white noise to block out the car alarms, delivery trucks and other distractions one would hear in a parking garage.  I try to stick to a routine in the car by listening to NPR instead of being on my iPhone while I eat and then switch to Noisli and power nap for 20min.  Believe it or not, I can hit R.E.M. in this amount of time.  This leaves me refreshed and ready for the rest of the day.  I also have a second canister of coffee in the truck to drink when I wake up too.

My Nosili App

As for managing my time more efficiently, I’ve done my research and the first book recommended to read is “Getting Things Done” by David Allen.  The reviews are really good, so I’m hoping that I can get some groundwork laid to be more productive with my painting.

So, I’ll leave you with my photo dump of past things from last week.