Meeting Deadlines

Whether you’re an artist for Disney or a freelance artist, you undoubtedly have deadlines. Meeting deadlines can get tricky if you take on too much. I’m sure missing deadlines for Disney, Warner or Pixar has its consequences. Missing deadlines as a freelance artist could easily cost you a good client. So what is the trick to meeting deadlines?

Six Tips to Meeting Deadlines

1. First and foremost I think is knowing yourself. What are you physically capable of? How much work can you turn out each day in a set number of hours without any distractions? I think as artists we all have an innate sense of our abilities. Sure, we might come upon some little snags in the road with some projects. But we have a pretty good idea of how long it would take to complete a project. If you know in your gut that you could complete the project in 36 – 48 hours, then don’t shoot yourself in the foot and promise it any sooner than that!

Minimize Distractions

2. Consider life’s daily distractions. This one might not apply so much to the Pixar artist who clocks in and out every day at work. I’m sure their work environment is more conducive to the work they’re trying to get done. But for freelance artists, many of us work from home. When you work from home, life happens around you making the challenge of meeting deadlines a little more tricky. There are hundreds of distractions. Spouse, kids, cat knocks over a vase, social media, email, phone, mailman, you get up to make coffee and realize you used the last of it yesterday…

Unless you’re one of those people who actually has an away-from-home office space (even if it’s a converted garage), you’re likely to be bombarded with daily distractions such as those mentioned. But if you’re like me and you work where you live, it would probably work to your advantage to set up a “Do not disturb” system. It may require sitting with your family and specifically stating your working hours and having them get on board with not disturbing you during those hours for any reason, except dire emergencies.

3. Respect your own “Do not disturb” system. If you don’t respect them, you shouldn’t expect anyone else to either. It is far too easy these days to get sidetracked. Everyone has a smart phone and access to the internet. I can’t tell you how often my focus is derailed when my phone chimes with a Facebook or Instagram notification. Next thing you know, I’ve not only looked at that one notification but also continued scrolling through a bunch more. And then I’ve lost a half hour to cyber space.

Silence your phone! Turn off alerts. Or better yet, leave the phone in another room entirely. And if you require the internet to get your project done, then set strict rules with yourself. I often have my laptop on my desk while I work so that I can look at some Googled reference image. I don’t have anything else open except for that one tab on my browser. If I have my email or Facebook open, the notifications pop up. If they pop up, I know that curiosity will likely get the better of me, so I don’t even allow for that opportunity.

Blocking Off Time

4. Become proficient at scheduling your day. If you leave things to chance, most things fall through the cracks and don’t get done. My own personal calendar (I use Google calendar) is ridiculously full. Do I get it all done every single day? Honestly? No. But I do get far more done than if I didn’t schedule anything at all. Google allows you to color code the events on your calendar. Some people use one color for all things that are non-negotiable. In other words, that particular thing must happen every day at that particular time. Some examples of that might be going to your 9-5 job (yes, some of us have those) or taking the kids to school. For all of my other events, I assign a color to each one. My gym time is yellow, drawing time is red, blogging time is green, etc. I set a notification on each event so that I get a pop up on my screen ten minutes before I have to switch gears to the next task. That ten minutes allows me to wind things down with the current thing I’m doing and mentally start getting into the frame of mind to face the next task.

If you’re at all like me, you hate schedules. I very stubbornly avoided scheduling for far too long. But I had to face the fact that I wasn’t getting anything done. Nothing near what I was capable of at any rate. And worse, I was missing deadlines, not meeting deadlines! So, I had the mental conversation with myself…Fine. I’ll schedule my week out and see how it goes. If it doesn’t work, then I guess I’ll just keep struggling the way I have been… Well, it wasn’t perfect. And I struggled to shift gears every time I got a notification for the next task. But after a day or two, I noticed that I was getting far more done each day than without the schedule. Not 100%. But still way more than before. For some people the laptop or phone calendar may work for them. Others might like the good old-fashioned planner, like the Franklin Covey type. Whatever works for you…use it!

Get Creative

5. Get creative with your time. Each of us have little pockets of hidden time throughout our day. It might not be immediately obvious to us. In the beginning, I had nine hours of every weekday blocked off for my 9-5 job, including the commute. Nothing I could do about that, right? Aside from quitting of course. I like being an artist, but not a starving artist. So the job stays put and so do I. But what I realized about my job in particular was that there were large chunks of time every day when things slow down. Some people were on their phones or tablets. Others were taking a nap or reading a book. Why couldn’t I bring in a drawing if it’s not too big?

It worked and after the initial distraction of everyone wanting to see what I was doing, I managed to get some decent work in. I still do that if my deadline is looming a bit too close for comfort. For you maybe it’s the kids’ nap time or when the spouse goes off to work, the gym, or to run errands. Maybe that time only comes after everyone else has gone to sleep. Could you perhaps get an hour or two of undisturbed work in then?

Know Your Limits

6. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. The temptation is so real! More jobs equals more money, right? But a huge part of meeting deadlines successfully is knowing your limits. If your would-be client wants the job done in the middle of two or three other big projects you’ve got going, then what are you going to do? If you accept the job and put your other three on hold, you’ll have those three clients upset with you. Not to mention that rushing artwork generally produces less than your best work. You’ll have all of your clients less than pleased with the results.

The best solution? Be honest with your would-be client. Tell her that your calendar is full at the moment, but that you’ll be free by whatever date. If she can’t wait, apologize and offer to refer her to another artist (if you know of any). Above all, maintain courteous professionalism. That way, if she’s set on having a work done specifically by you, she’ll either accommodate your schedule or come back to you for a future project.

Basically, meeting deadlines requires us to be grown-ups. And for many of us artists, there is an abundance of playfulness, curiosity, creativity, and an overall sense of fun that we don’t want to put on the adult shoes. And I will be the first to grudgingly admit that I seriously dislike this part. But, I will also admit (just as grudgingly) that all that I mentioned above is necessary if I want to get anything done at all and have people respect not just my work, but me personally as an artist.

So yes,  (in my head) the petulant child-like me is standing there with her arms crossed, her lip stuck out in a pout with and her brow creased with a frown. But the adult-me very patiently deals with her and points out that we have time for fun (yes, I schedule that too!). Trust me, it’s a work in progress and it will take time for many of you. I’m still working on it! For some, scheduling might be a piece of cake. Scheduling always bothered me because it felt institutional, like work or school, being told when to arrive, when to take breaks and lunch, and when to go home. Again, the adult-me had to step up and make the rest of me listen to reason. If meeting deadlines is important to you and your business depends on it, then you’d better do what’s necessary. And so, I am. And for the record…my lip is still stuck out in a pout. Just a little bit.