Hi,

I've decided to consolidate my web sites to make things more manageable and focused.

So please go here to:

The Kitchen Table Artist

Thanks,

Barry

Always has been for me. Surrounded by friends or on my own I think of the year past and what's ahead. The Christmas celebrations enhance the sense of despair in me as they feel so empty. It must be in my dna as I have friends who really get into it all. But come new years eve I focus on the possibilities ahead, and that is a good enough reason to celebrate.

My past year has been in a state of flux. I think a lot of what I was working on will bear fruit in the year ahead. Working as an artist and writer, I can clearly see the need to setup a better way of organising my time and the work I do each day. Back when I was managing direstor of my design studio I did this as second nature. It worked very well, it had to, I was managing twelve co-workers as well as living as a family man with a wife and two children. Paradoxically now that I'm living on my own I've no one else to answer to, and that means self motivation and organisation is more important now than ever.

I've tried just letting go at times over the last few years and that ended up with large tracts of chilled out periods were I did good work but not a lot of it. By setting up my days better I can still let go but within a time frame. By letting go I mean not trying to stucture my days, 'going with the flow' would better describe what I mean.

I think from experience what works best is the freedom of 'going with the flow' but within a structure. I don't have unlimited time and I do have a lot of things I want to do, artwork, writing, travel, developing income streams etc.

So on this New Years day onwards I'm still going to 'live my life as an artist' but apply some of the skills I learned and honed as a managing director in my previous life. I'll let you know how this works out as I move into 2009.

This is one of the differences between being amateur and turning professional. A professional makes it work, with an amateur it either doesn't matter or they don't know how to make it work and refuse to find out. Turning professional is the moment you 'burn the boats' - no way back, defeat the enemy. Mostly that enemy can be ones own bad work habits, attitudes and fear. It is with me.

I can smell the smoke!

Best wishes for 2009 - Barry

Tags: Organisation