How to stay organized in your creative practice
A question I get asked more than almost any other: "How do you get so much done?"
Between a full studio practice — mixed media, collage, digital art, fiber arts — and running a small creative universe of prints, patterns, and products across half a dozen platforms, I understand why people ask. From the outside, it can look like some kind of sorcery. It isn't. It's a system, and it's a pretty unglamorous one.
There is no magic. There's Asana.
I live inside Asana. Every project — each shop, each collection, each piece in progress — has its own board, and nothing enters my brain as a "thing I need to remember." It goes straight into a task. My mind is not a filing cabinet; it's a workshop. I don't want it holding onto paperwork when it could be making something.
The real trick: chunking
Here's the part that actually moves the needle, though — it's not the app, it's how I break the work apart.
A big task is a wall. Nobody wants to climb a wall. So I don't put "design holiday product line" on my list. I put "sketch three motif ideas." Then, separately, "pick a color palette." Then "mock up on Zazzle." Each piece is small enough that starting doesn't require summoning any willpower — it just requires ten or twenty minutes and a next click.
It turns out this is the same instinct that shows up at the easel, too. A large mixed-media piece never gets built all at once. It's a layer of graphite one day, a scrap of paper-weaving the next, watercolor washed in on a third. Chunking isn't just a productivity hack — it's how I've always made things. I just finally gave it a name and a system.
Two hats, one method
What I love about this — and what ties back to something I wrote about a few weeks ago in "Two Hats, One Head" — is that the how doesn't change between my fine art and my product design work. Break it down, do the small piece in front of you, trust that the small pieces add up. Whether it's a new coloring book page, a Zazzle collection, or a piece headed for a gallery wall, the process is the same. Only the content changes.
So if you've ever looked at a full plate — creative or otherwise — and felt the overwhelm before you even started: try breaking it into something absurdly small. Small enough that you could do it in the next ten minutes. Then just do that one thing.
The rest tends to follow.
Speaking of getting work done….
I have been diligently adding products to my print on demand Zazzle store. It’s been fun designing home decor, invitations and all types of products and accessories that people can personalize!
I have added tons of customizable Christmas and Holiday products to my store…
Trendy Holiday Christmas cards
Red Floral Pointsettia pattern Christmas Home Decor
Christmas Red Floral Pointsettia Gift Wrap
Please visit my zazzle store to check out my other products: