5 Tips to Organize Your Art Admin
As artists we have to do so many types of tasks and we are the creator of our workspaces as well as our art. This hugely varied list of responsibilities, from creating work to documenting and finances, is a massive undertaking. Organization can really make or break you when you are doing so many types of work all under the title “artist”.
So,we’ve got 5 blog posts for you on this theme! Check out all of them to get your studio practice organized from top to bottom as we discuss tips and tricks to staying organized in your art practice and business.
Here we focus on all the administrative tasks that go beyond making artwork and spending time in the studio. This could be accounting, ordering supplies, posting on social media, and more. Artists have SO many art admin tasks. Don’t get overwhelmed though, because we are going to give you some simple tips to tackle this type of work.
#1- Get clear on what repeats and what is a one-off task
Sit down and take time to think through all of your tasks. Give this your full concentration and list out everything you do each week or each month for your art administration tasks. List tasks that repeat regularly, like sending out a monthly newsletter. Then write down tasks that don’t repeat regularly. This could be applications to shows that don’t have a set schedule.
#2- Batch your repeat tasks
Look at your list of repeat tasks and group similar tasks together. For example, creating images for instagram can also become images for your newsletter. Doing these groups of tasks at once can make them easier to get done. Block out chunks of time to get many related things done at once.
#3- Automate! Automate! Automate!
When you look at your repeat tasks, are there tasks you can automate? For instance there are many tools now to automate your social media posts. So, after you create a set of posts, you can schedule them to go out automatically over the upcoming days and weeks.
#4- Make A Monthly Schedule
Create a monthly calendar that reflects your repeated tasks. That way, you aren’t reinventing your task list each month and you know how to structure your time each month based on what worked in the past. Of course, sometimes you will have to adjust your schedule as things come up but at least it is all going to be on your radar so things don’t fall through the cracks.
#5- Don’t do it alone!
Having an accountability buddy can help you stay organized and that can make all the difference. Contact a fellow artist and see if you can do weekly check-ins on what tasks you are doing and your overall monthly goals. We are all about community over competition here at the Thrive Together Network, and we know partnering with another artist on this type of thing will have huge payouts for you both!
We hope you are breathing a little easier after this one! But, if you don’t want to coordinate your art admin by yourself, remember Thrive Together Network Members meet every Tuesday on Zoom to work on our art admin tasks for the week as a community. You can learn more about joining our community here.
