Do This!
Artist Marketing Newsletter Focusing on Action Steps

What's Going On: Announcements /Classes
>>>Do This: Make Room for Success
Tip / Find of the Week:  Getting Things Done
Artists Respond: What They Have to Say

The Do This! newsletter is sent only to subscribers. You can subscribe using the instructions in the column at left. Instructions for unsubscribing and changing your email address are at the bottom of each issue delivered to your inbox.

WHAT'S GOING ON

: : CLASS: SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION : :
Begins Today, December 6
No one cares about your career more than you and no one believes in your work more than you. No one can promote your work better than you. Get fired up and start making a name for yourself with this online class (available either as weekly or every-other-day lessons). http://www.artbizcoach.com/classes/selfpromo.shtml

: : WORKSHOP: FROM FRAME TO FAME : :
February 5 in Tulsa, OK
Step-by-step instructions and motivation for organizing your exhibition. One artist who attended the same workshop in Coeur d'Alene said, "Alyson put the pieces together for me." Another wrote, "It was so GREAT!!!!! Thank you so much!!!" Tulsa: http://www.artbizcoach.com/tulsa

: : NEW BLOG : :
I've joined the ranks of online bloggers. I just had too much to say about art that didn't fit in the format of this newsletter. Read about my recent trip to the storage facility of a major New York art museum and thoughts about art vs. craft: http://stanfieldart.typepad.com

Angie Sebolt, Holiday Bracelet. Ruby-red  freshwater pearls. ©The Artist http://www.ladedajewelrydesign.com

Why not succeed at something right now -- before the new year even begins? Why not clear out your clutter so that you can make room for success in 2005?

Clutter gets in our way. It begs for our attention and we feel guilty ignoring it or, worse, pushing it aside to make room for new clutter.

When you want to update your mailing list, is it easy? Or do you have to spend two days tracking down addresses and scraps of paper? When you want to send in an art festival application, do you have to wade through a pile to find it? Are all of your career deadlines and goals on your calendar or just in your head?

Here are a few questions you might ask yourself when you're trying to decide where to put a piece of paper, an art material, a decoration, or an article of clothing:

►Do you love it? If you don't love it, do you really need to live with it? Or is it just getting in your way?

►Have you changed your art significantly and don't think you'll be using a particular material anytime in the next 3-5 years? Or, have you kept it around for 5-10 years in hopes that you might one day use it, yet that day has never come?

►Do you use it? (When is the last time you used it? Has better technology or another object replaced its use in your life?)

FlyLady recommends the "27-Fling Boogie" on a daily basis. That means taking a few minutes out of your day and throwing away (or donating or recycling) 27 things. Have fun with it! http://www.flylady.net

After you've de-cluttered, trashed, donated, and recycled, you can organize and file. Do it in this order and save a lot of time.

Getting organized is part of "Setting Up Your Art Business," which begins January 10. http://www.artbizcoach.com/classes/settingup.shtml

If you use Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, you can forward this page to a friend by going up to your menu and, under "File," select "Send"  or "Send Page."  Or just copy and paste this URL into a message: http://www.artbizcoach.com/dothis

TIP / FIND OF THE WEEK: Getting Things Done  

I am, admittedly, obsessed with being organized and finding good systems that help me run my business and life more smoothly. I have recently read and implemented David Allen's "Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity."

One of the best tips in his book is a way to organize your inbox. After I did this, I now go to bed with 0 (zero!) messages in my inbox. When I get a message, I respond to it if it takes two minutes or less (the same is true for paper handling, too). If it will take longer than that, it goes in other Outlook folders I have created, including:

"@Action" -- Things I need to act upon.

"@Read" -- Things I need to read (like the NY Times headlines, other email newsletters, etc.).

"@Waiting For" -- Things I'm waiting for from other people.

After I act on something, the original message can then be transferred to the Waiting For folder. Why use the "@" symbol? Because this puts it at the very top of your folders list. Wow! What a cool trick.

I also have many other Outlook folders for things I just want to save and I could no longer live without this system. And this is just one of his tips! If you're interested in organizing yourself (on paper and on your computer), take a look at the book (this is a link to Amazon):

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0142000280/artbizcoachco-20/ 

ARTISTS RESPOND:  

In response to last week's newsletter about rethinking habits, Victoria Restrepo of Potomac, MD wrote:

Victoria Restrepo, Still Life with Carrots and Lemon in a Window. 2004,  photograph and digital art. ©The Artist http://www.vrestrepo.com

"This week newsletter was excellent! When I read it, I felt like if you were talking to me. This is exactly like I felt a few weeks ago. Right now I am working on my open house day and night, but I feel I am doing something new, and it's working. The event is going to be in 12 days, but I've already achieved one of my goals: I have added more than 50 contacts to my mailing list. (This was one of my goals). As I told you before, I don't know many people around here, and they weren't very supportive of my work. Maybe they thought it was only a nice hobby for a full-time mom. In these past few weeks, after they received the invitations, they have called, and send me a lot of new names. People that I rarely see have asked me if they can bring some friends, and some have asked me for more invitations. The visits to my web page have also increased in the past few weeks. I was very cautious with my goals, because I know this is the first time I'm doing something like this, I don't know what should I expect. But for me, the most important issue this time, is that I can show what I am doing, and that the people start to associate my name with my art."

 Note: See the menu in the upper left of this page to view popular topics from past issues. 

Copyright © 2004 Alyson B. Stanfield, Stanfield Art Associates. All rights reserved. 

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The Do This! newsletter is sent only to subscribers. You can subscribe using the instructions in the column at left. Instructions for unsubscribing and changing your email address are at the bottom of each issue delivered to your inbox.