Carnival Blog-July

The Blog Carnival….a group of jewelers get together via the web, once a month, to post on a topic that has to do with jewelry.  It’s a fun way to hear different opinions from wonderful artists.  Hope you’ll visit their sites and read their great blogs.

This photograph is available in  MarcoLaGrenouille Etsy Shop.  It’s a 8″x8″ photo for $22

 

Topic:  Deadlines…How do you feel about them?  Are they a necessary evil or something you left behind in school?

 

The motto I live by….One Deadline at a Time.   A fantastic t-shirt slogan.  Yes, sad but true.  The question is not when’s the deadline?  It’s which deadline is first?  Truth be told, I unfortunately cannot complete items that have no deadline.  Those go to the end of the line and never pass go.  Line cutters are future deadlines and they wait for no slacking non-deadline project or task to get to the front of the line.  

 

I have learned to ask people who would like something from me, when is the drop dead date you need it by?  Thus creating it’s place in the deadline’s line.   As my personal assistant, I have a journal book that is more like a what needs to be done and great ideas book.  I carry it with me everywhere I go.  Inside there are tool ideas, sources, lists and more lists.  Things crossed off, added and circled.   I am a paper gal.  I love paper!  Yes, I have an iphone but there isn’t much in it.  I often feel I can’t start the day without starting a list or reviewing what needs to be done.  I’d be lost without lists and deadlines.

 

Recently I’m back to what I’ll refer to as the post-it note deadline shuffle.  I have a white board from Ikea where I put deadlines on post-it-notes on the board.  There are different colors for different areas of my life: business, artist, personal, family.  These get rearranged by priority or mood.  They are visible and I’m held accountable.  It works well and I’m not able to easily forget an upcoming deadline.  The seed has been planted and it percolates until I have time to address it.  

 

 

I’ve also found great success with Icalender and a timer.  Each morning I sit at Ical and plan out my day on the hourly slots.  I set tasks that can be done in 50 minute increments.  I wear a timer around my neck (yes, and look stupid when I forget and wear it to the store).  My 13 yr old is always telling me how lame I look with it on.  Perhaps it needs some faux rock (ala Robert Dancik), polymer, resin, or bezel set in something glamorous.  I set the timer for 50 minutes.  During that time I work on that task.  When the timer goes off, I have 10 minutes to get coffee, stretch, go talk to my team, answer questions,  check facebook, email, etc.  At the top of the hour it’s off to the next task at hand.  If I don’t get the task done, I can either move the item later in the day and bump something else, or it gets revisited the next day.  I have increased by productivity ten-fold with this time management trick and I highly recommend it. This allows for no time to procrastinate, day dream, or roam the internet!

 

So I couldn’t live without my deadlines.  They rock the house.  Even my vacations have become a deadline.  Now that’s just sad.  I fear that it’s a rut that has become a trench. &
#0160;I’m looking forward to making it more of a furrow this fall as soon as show season is over for us.  I am sorely needing to learn work-life balance.  So, unlike my most of my fellow carnies, I love a good deadline.    

 

Speaking of which…if you are in Oakland the weekend of the 14th, I recommend attending the Enameling Society’s Conference.  They only have it every 2 years and it’s going to be great!  We’ll be in the vendors room or you can catch me networking!  I’m also taking a class…yipppeeee!

 

Check out these other carnies:

Lora Hart

Tamra Gentry

Angela Baduel-Crispin

Lorrene Davis

Elaine Luther