Balancing Life

I am starting to let the stress get to me again. Preparing for next quarter's classes, grading for my online students, getting ready for Christmas and zero time to be creative. It was somehow fortuitous that I took a few minutes to read a newsletter post from a lady who has been in the jewelry business for a long time. In this article she addresses artists and entrepreneurs, but really it holds true no matter what you do in life. I am posting the article here in hopes that someone will benefit from it as I think I have. Sometimes you just need a new perspective (and yes, it says in the newsletter we can repost as long as we use her blurb at the bottom):

3 Essential Steps to Self Mastery: Balancing Life As An Artist

Being an entrepreneur or solo-preneur is a great balancing act. There's family, friends, production work, creative work, creative play, and then the icky, boring business schtuff.

How do we fit it all in a day's work without exhaustion, overwhelm, and unhappiness?
Our continuous overload of "must-do's" can be overwhelming which initiates that good ole fight or flight reaction in our lizard brains. Yep, right into reaction mode versus creation mode, which often results in procrastination. Funny that that particular words starts with "pro". I'm not "for" it by any means!
The more pressure we feel, the more easily we default to this mode which then becomes habit. Stress is in fact the absence of faith in ourselves. So it's essential to have tools to help us keep the faith in our ability to get it all done.
Yep, we all know this stuff, but what can we do to implement the tools to become masters of self. We can't manage time. Unless you can heard flies, forget about managing time. What we need to do is "manage self".

Here are 3 essential tools you'll need to implement to help balance life:

1- Evaluate & determine your circadian rhythm

There are 2-3 hours that are our most productive time. Time when we feel the most energetic. When is that for you?
Do you schedule your most important genius work during these hours? If not, it's time to reevaluate your schedule. Really think hard and determine when you'll include self-care, creative genius work, play, and business/marketing time.

2- Schedule your day the night before - batch your day

Now that you've figured out your most productive time, do a shortened version of the Sunday Summit every night.
Your subconscious then has time to work on any troubles or ideas you might have. How great is that! Wake up with a sense of clarity and purpose, with a rudder on your ship!
When you schedule your time, remember that we work best in 40-50 minute bursts. Try setting your timer at the beginning of the hour and then use the 10-20 minutes for breaks (dance, return calls, be social on facebook, drink water, etc).

3- Eliminate Distraction

Not only is it a good idea to remove distractions it's a good idea to have sacred space in which to do different tasks.
Turn off your email, facebook, chat, etc. It's only 40-50 minutes. You can do without it and then reward yourself later.
Athletes, writers and lots of others, implement triggers to signal their brain, "hey, it's time to do your genius work"! Baseball players will adjust the velcro on their glove, tap their shoes, etc. Others might put on certain music, light a candle, etc.

     Involve all the senses when creating habit and successful work/creative environments.

---

Teacher, mentor, artist and founder of the Artful Success Program, Tonya Davidson helps artists take their techniques and business skills to the next level. As the CEO and founder of Whole Lotta Whimsy she has passionately empowered artists to live creatively from the inside out. Create the life you love by subscribing to her ezine, reading her blog, or following her on facebook/twitter! 

---

And, I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Happy Holidays!