Increase Your Ability to Focus

Do you have a tendancy to jump between ideas like a grasshopper? Do you ever lose track of where you are? Is your mind a hummingbird flitting from one tantalizing idea to another? Perhaps you've recently discovered a cache of finished paintings in a drawer? 

A couple of months ago, I called my corporate-type sis about my chronic inability to organize my time and projects. She told me all about Project Management. She also recommended the book peeking out of the pouch below and a computer application called Omnifocus for Mac. I guess they must have it for Windows as well.

I downloaded the 2-week free trial of Omnifocus, here and have started to use it. It's 80 bucks (not cheap) but is a fantastic tool. I'll be buying it. The book, Getting Things Done, is a snooze-fest (no pictures!) but in between the boring blah-blah-blah or corporate talk, are very interesting tidbits. I'm slowly reading along. It's like a required college course textbook. 

The business of being an artist is really hard (to quote George Bush).  This might help.

About the pouches ... total whimmery after I looked at this post over at Purlbee on Friday. It's a simple beginner project and an excellent tutorial. I had some scraps lying around so made a couple with some small changes. I used french seams so that there were no raw edges inside. I determine the size of bags by measuring the things I will be putting in plus ease plus seam allowance. Except when I don't :) sometimes I just use what's lying about the place (like the bag below which I filled with precious scraps of fabric). You'll need two lengths of trim 2 times the width of the bag plus about 3 inches for the drawstring. 

I hope this helps you! 

Comments

[kathy/michigan]

I'll be interested to see how this works for you. I am starting a new position at work next Monday which will dramatically change my hours and my "free" time. I'm not certain how this will impact my creative time. It may actually force me to be more focused and organized. Or my monkey brain will go bonkers and I will end up whimpering in a corner with scraps of fabric and paper and paint fluttering wildly about my head!

[Aloquin]

I love this post so much because I respect immensely your truth-telling about the book. Your opinion comes through clear, and you don't find as much of that these days as one should. Kudos, Diana :)

[Diana Trout]

Oh Kathy! I'd hate to see you whimpering in a corner. Over the years of running my own business(es), I've learned to be a bit more organized but it doesn't come easily to us creative types, does it? I think Omnifocus will help because you can organize everything from work to artwork to housework (which is still going undone around these parts.)
Good luck with your new job! Don't be too hard on yourself for a month or so.

[Diana Trout]

Thanks Jen. It may not bore everyone to tears and honestly there is a good bit of excellent info in there. It's just so CORPORATE! And I have trouble understanding that stuff. sigh. It would be very helpful to artists to work in a corporate environment for a few years. In my post-college days, I worked at law firms and then at the library. Very different from the business world.