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How do you prioritize? by jonas

So inbetween commissions and life stuff, I've been intermittently working on a document that I'll eventually upload to Weasyl and other places. It's basically a little guide, based on my own experiences (positive and negative alike) to being a more organized, self-regulating artist. Many artists I've known, even really outstanding ones, developed their artistic skills without the mental infrastructure (logistics, time management, etc.) to produce art consistently while still maintaining low stress levels. As a result, what once was a fun hobby turns into at best a difficult slog and at worst a nasty hitting-the-wall experience that engenders emotional upset, depression and friction with clients who have been patiently waiting.

While I don't have any huge ambitions with this little free-time project, I do hope it'll help younger artists avoid the numerous mistakes I myself made. I've had to learn this stuff from scratch. As I've probably mentioned before, I was a "gifted" child, and pretty much told that if I just scored high on tests, everything else would be taken care of for me and the world would be my oyster. (Not in as many words, but you get the idea.) I think that that, while meant well, was among the worst advice I ever received. However, I digress.

There's one essential question I've been considering for this document, and I'm putting it to artists and non-artists alike: how do you -- that is, you personally -- prioritize?

Obviously, there can be overriding factors that decide for you. Like how close different deadlines are for different things, for example, or order received. But let's say you have a large array of tasks that, while different in nature, have many similar qualities that interfere with easy prioritization. Whether or not it's true, it seems like everything in said array has the same essential objective value, same start date and deadline, same payout, et cetera. The actual time cost of each object in the array, while very likely different, remains unknown until you actually start it, and you can only work out rough estimates which are close in duration anyway. And you have no way of knowing if a given task will remain simple, or if it will suddenly erupt into an array of unexpected sub-tasks once you're knee-deep in it. (Because let's face it, that can happen.)

And let's say you can't consult any outside agency. The boss doesn't care, or isn't available. Or it's a cluster of projects only you know all the details about. Whatever the details, the prioritization is left entirely and only to you. How do you figure out an order/hierarchy at that point? What factors do you look for? Do you just randomize it?

How do you prioritize?

jonas

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    I tend to save the most important and time consuming things for last and then either:
    A.) Do them at the last minute or
    B.) Never do them

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    I spend every day doing everything a little bit, often two things simultaneously. As soon as a task is available to be worked on, I add it to the mix and put my life on shuffle to keep things interesting without neglecting anything too much or putting anything off.

    In the same day, I'll be playing a game I should be getting out of my queue/completing, placing orders for janitorial supplies, researching car tires to get my front tires changed soon, streaming a cartoon to watch with friend(s), and picking up tools then depositing checks. That's just today, and I've still got ten hours in my day to go, and many of these things were handled concurrently and in pieces.

    There's basically a master list in my head of what's to do, and so long as I'm taking chunks out of these things and completing them (well) before their due dates, then I feel like I'm doing well. I weigh these things based on how close to the due date I am (I try to get everything done at least the day before), I weigh tasks for others more strongly than tasks for my own ends, and I avoid the inefficiency of the "spool up time" for picking up and setting down tasks by mixing in the easily bite sized things in between. These are usually "me time" things like exploring the work of a new artist or revising my own work in my head (or even just doing something silly like singing, or doing simple exercises or stretches).

    I place moderate importance on keeping myself refreshed and keeping things novel. I consider that the grease and oil for keeping the machine of my life low stress and high efficiency. I've gone without those things before and it's only lead to break downs. Keeping entertained and limber is just a necessary part of being productive to me, even if I make the the mistake of neglecting these things still now and again.

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    Lists, lists, lists.

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    One approach that seems to be pretty effective is the Eisenhower Decision Matrix. It divides tasks into four distinct categories based on whether the task is important, urgent, both, or neither. By listing tasks and categorizing them thusly, you can find a good general order of operations for most groups of tasks.

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      In addition, it's good to schedule time beyond what you expect a task to require to accommodate any issues that arise. Learning which tasks are more prone to overage and by how much is considerably less set in stone, but as a general rule, the more complex a task is or the more steps a task has, the more likely it is that something will come up while performing it. Predicting this and scheduling around it is something that takes practice to do, and as I know all too well, is easier said than done.

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    The simple task list and Pomodoro complementing it are probably the most commonly used methods to keep myself on track. You want to take everything you ahve and prioritize it. Assign deadlines (if there are some). Once your to-do list is loaded (or you have made significant change/additions to it) than you might want to take the luxury of walking away and putting your mind into something different. Then when you come back to it fresh, you can start making any tweaks to the priority that you need to (maybe one of the projects is closer to something else and thus it fits in with something else and makes sense to work on it then, exceptions, other factors...).

    From there, you can load some of your tasks into Pomodoro to make sure you are chipping away at all the projects.

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    I generally work on whatever I feel like I can actually A: get done, and B: give a shit about first. Anything else is...if I get around to it, I get around to it.

    As long as the stuff I save for last won't bite me in the ass if I don't get it done, I generally don't worry. It's why I try to have as few commitments as possible, that way I can do what I feel like without neglecting something important.

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    Hoo boy, depends on what tasks you're asking about

    Say in college for me right now. I ended up last semester needing one ten page paper done, one five page paper done minimally, one research paper started, AND had the first nights of a play I was in starting ON THEIR DUE DATES, as well as a chapter test in math on the opening day of the play, meaning even before their due dates I had insane amounts of dress rehearsals and meetings and set finishing touches to go to etc.

    So my average day became - wake up, eat breakfast, review what needs to be done in the day. Go to English, work IN ENGLISH on english paper, hour before next class work on english paper, go to Philosophy, listen to whatever I probably hadnt read but needed to have, get the jist of it, scratch out more ideas for paper (BTW I tackle papers by making outlines, finding quotes that I want to use, plunking them in the outline, THEN writing it), lunch and working on philosophy paper, anthropology class work on taking as MANY notes as possible (while at this point doodling a good amount because well, stress) then afterwords working on anthropology for about an hour. Go home, rest, work on loose ends for the day. Study lines for a half hour or more, head to rehearsal, stay there until late into the night, go to dinner with friends, come home, study some more, but make sure I got enough sleep (I often missed dinner though during the play's practice times because practice was from 5pm-10pm)

    I found that worked very well for me. I also would on friday's plan out my DnD campaign, write it all up, and saturdays were devoted to playing it with friends. And on Sunday's I only would finish up what was DUE the next day, or study for a test due the next day, and create a plan for the following week of what to get done, or how much time to spend on what projects what days.

    Oddly enough, having outlines reduces my stress

    But as far as ART goes, I never have an outline. Indeed when I draw I draw first in pen so that I can't redo the sketch a million times due to mistakes. I'm a perfectionist. And lately I don't even know if I can forgive myself for being as bad as I am at art, and I've lost the ability to just, create, when I want to, so I have no real plan for that

    Unless I get a commission. Then I do it as soon as I get it least I forget about it and never do it.

    Cause you know, artists by nature can be prone to procrastination. But I don't think its by any form of laziness, but rather, an insane amount of perfectionism that makes us not even wanna try

    I have a huge box full of different art supplies and notebooks etc that I haven't even touched for fear that I'll waste them creating something not worth their quality.

    YEP

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    eh too simple in my brain to explain
    I just do it