HOW TO ORGANIZE YOUR ART CAREER : BIG PICTURE THINKING

Getting Organized for the New Year: A Guide for Artists

The end of the year is a time for reflection and goal-setting. Artists, with their unique blend of creative and professional challenges need tailored strategies to navigate this upcoming year end review. Here’s a guide to help you organize your artistic practice for the year ahead.

1. Start with Reflection and Vision Planning

Before diving into to-do lists and schedules, take time to reflect on the past year:

• Review your achievements and challenges. What brought you joy? What could have gone better?

• TIP: look over your photos from the past year. What were your favorite moments and how can you encourage repeating them. 

• Create a vision board: Write down your dream plan. What is your ideal artist career. Where do you see your practice going? What do you want to accomplish?
  Write categories for the next 1 year, 3 years, and 10 years.

• Use this time to define what success means for YOU. It’s easy to chase goals that others deem important or that you see others enjoying on social media but aligning your goals with what you find enjoyable is the key to success.

2. Set Realistic and Layered Goals

Organizing your practice begins with clear goals, but it’s important to think across different timeframes:

• Short-Term Goals: Immediate tasks with due dates coming up.
  Eg. finishing works for an exhibition or updating your website.

• Mid-Term Goals: Applying for grants, building relationships with curators, or improving your portfolio.

• Long-Term Goals: Having that solo museum exhibition, creating a significant body of work, or diversifying your income streams.

TIP: Consider working backward from your goals. For example, if you want a solo museum show in three years, think about the steps to get there: reaching out to curator is an obvious step, but before that you need to target which curators to contact so that involves research. Before that you need to update your website and pr to reflect the body of work that would be exhibited. Before that you need to have a cohesive body of work that could be exhibited in a museum.

3. Organize WITH Systems

Creating systems for your practice can save time and reduce stress:

• Studio Systems: Use a calendar to block out time for different tasks, from making art to cleaning up, to marketing and administrative work. Try and standardize this so that your on auto-pilot and know what to do when you get to the studio.

  Some artists do admin work every monday, while others research and email a different curator every Thursday morning. Having a system you can come back to when your feeling lost is a great way to stay on track.

• Project Management: Use business tools like Trello or writing up a simple quarterly whiteboard can help track progress on exhibitions, grants, and other projects.

  Similarly writing down all your successes on a weekly/monthly bases is a great way to stay motivated / remain grateful / and have a written list of successes when it comes time to write your newsletter!

• Document Management: Keep an artist toolkit ready, including high-quality images of your work, a CV, artist statements, and bios. SEE OUR TALK ON APPLICATIONS

One participant shared their method of using a “whiteboard’. This is a Google Doc for quarterly planning with nested lists for the different categories in their art career like projects, outreach, successes, and marketing. This approach allows for a big-picture view while focusing on month-to-month tasks and gives you a master document so that all the other information doesn’t get lost.
FREE ARTIST WHITEBOARD TEMPLATE

4. Tackle Overwhelm with Prioritization

Many artists struggle with taking on too much or feeling like they’re spinning their wheels. Strategies to combat this include:

• The Eisenhower Matrix: Prioritize tasks based on urgency and importance.

• Urgent and Important (On your TODO list):
  Tasks that need immediate attention and are crucial for your goals.
  Example: Completing a grant application due tomorrow.

• Important but Not Urgent (Schedule):
  Tasks that contribute to long-term goals but aren’t time-sensitive.
  Example: Updating your portfolio or writing an artist statement.

• Not Urgent and Not Important (Eliminate):
  Activities that are distractions or time-wasters.
  Example: Excessive scrolling on social media with no purpose.

• Accountability Groups: Collaborate with your peers for mutual support and feedback. Regular check-ins can help you stay on track and building a cadre of people who know you can help when your going off track or wondering if you should apply to a new random opportunity.  **NOTE: every successful accountability group has one person who schedules meetings, organizes, and keeps the group going.

• Selective Opportunities: Avoid the trap of applying for every grant or open call. One method to be more selective is to develop a budget for applications and focus on opportunities that align with your goals, capacity, and career stage.

7. Practice Self-Compassion

Organization is an evolving process, and it’s okay to adjust along the way:

• Forgive yourself for unfinished tasks or unmet goals.

• Celebrate small wins and progress.

• Remember that your art practice should reflect your unique voice and values.

• Check out our module on BUILDING A HAPPIER ART PRACTICE

Closing Thoughts

Getting organized as an artist is about more than time management—it’s about aligning your daily actions with your broader aspirations. By reflecting, setting layered goals, and building supportive systems, you can create a practice that is both productive and fulfilling.

As you plan for the new year, remember: organization is not about perfection. It’s about creating space for your creativity to thrive while staying grounded in your purpose.

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