I promised to show a list of what steals my precious working time away. For each of you, the items will be different, but you probably are well aware of what they are because you feel guilty when you spend time on them. I'm going to get brutally honest with myself so that I can get down to the business of painting – and writing articles. Yep, I've got two careers... in the long run, one will win out over the other, but I must do both now.

Things I do and shouldn't be doing (during my most productive hours)

Looking randomly around at sites on the Internet. This does not include research for my articles. But have you ever noticed how much time can pass while you're ONLINE? It's as though my mind goes into hyper mode and forgets that anything else exists around me. In a way, I feel similarly to when I'm painting – time flies by and I forget to look at the clock. I get totally engrossed in what I'm reading as though it were the most important thing I could do. Well, you're reading this blog, so when you're done, you might want to consider working if this is your most mind-focused time of the day. And I don't want to make you feel like there's no time for play – play and recreation is a rewarding experience – especially when we've got our work done.

Checking email every hour. Art making is a lonely existence. I am a socially oriented person, and email is almost as good as talking to someone. I am thankful that I don't particularly like using the phone. Day after day goes by, with me being my own companion. When my husband gets home, he has been talking to people all day, so it's not a good time to blast him with incessant verbiage. However, and this is huge, if I spend my best hours checking email, and then the news and the weather and so on, I will pay the dear price of non-success. At this point in my career, I've got a lot going for me – there is nothing standing in my way of becoming a nationally known top selling artist except my tendency to while away the hours on non-productive activity. Again, it's not that I can't do these things, but perhaps I could leave them for the hours when my mind is foggy.... like after dinner. OR, even every other evening. If someone needs to get a hold of me, they can use the phone. Email is for non-urgent stuff.

Shopping: This includes thinking of shopping or looking at catalogs I'll know what things I truly want later in the day – when my mind is almost useless to paint or write. I used to work at a computer company... imagine how awful I would have felt if I needed to be moving toward a deadline and my boss caught me looking at catalogs Even if they're art catalogs, art related tasks can steal my time just as efficiently as non-art related tasks.

Chores: A successful artist friend of mine once admitted to being self-coerced into vacuuming when she had a painting deadline. She said, “I know I'll be successful at vacuuming” Isn't it amazing how the urge to do menial tasks become suddenly seductive when we've got an art deadline? The problem is that no matter how long one has been painting, one cannot PROVE that it can be done again – until well into the painting process. That's because painting is somewhat of a right-brained process; we can't remember just how we did it sometimes. OK, so the point here is that chores and other necessary STUFF that I need to do can be done at the appropriate time.

The list goes on, and I'll add some as I come across them and deal with them. I hope this has been helpful to some of you out there. My intent is that by sharing, I'll strike a chord with readers and make some kind of positive difference – even if small.
Now I've gotta get a new Watercolor Tip done for www.myamericanartist.com  (which is part of my job)

Sincerely,

Lori