Craft – Jodi Hugo

"This work is about reaching out. Being vulnerable. It is about a connection and letting someone in." — “This work is about reaching out. Being vulnerable. It is about a connection and letting someone in.”

I have been very productive lately. This also means that I haven’t been blogging. I haven’t been doing much besides painting.

Productivity has always been quite a challenge for me. It has taken many years to figure out all the barriers. First I needed to understand what was holding me back from doing the one thing I have always felt was my calling. Why couldn’t I paint when that was all I was thinking about?

I seem to have come across 3 key productivity boosters for myself and hopefully some other people.

1. Be your own best boss.

This may seem obvious but it took me a really long time to understand that when you are self-employed you are your own boss. You are not bossless. What helped me was understanding what kind of boss I would like to work for. I read an article on how to manage my personality type at work. At first I thought: “so glad I am not a manager or an employee! Whew!” Suddenly it all made sense. I was a manager and an employee. And I was being the worst boss possible to and for my personality type (INFP). I was critically breaking down every single thought or attempt I made to create. This was a bad boss – especially for someone like me! This obviously creates a spiral where I would become a worse employee and in turn be a meaner boss. If I had to be anybody else’s boss I would never dream of treating them this way- it is quite unnatural for me to be mean. So I changed my style of managing myself. And voila! I have become a really good employee. I would really recommend finding out how your personality type might influence how you would be best managed.

2. Block off work time without interruptions.

I have managed to put aside a few hours every day where I can work without being interrupted. I need to be completely isolated to be affective.

Even if I feel uninspired I will, at least, sit in my studio. Just being there often gets me working.

3. Have other people handle the the things that you are not good at.

I realised a while back that one of the biggest stumble points for me was trying to do all the different tasks of running my own business. All I really want to do is create things. All the other aspects like selling art, marketing, admin and dealing with people were strangling me so much that I couldn’t make art. They were big stressors that left me paralysed. And then I joined a gallery – Which in itself was a challenge for me – and it changed everything. Now, except for the occasional commission, I only make art.

And that is all I ever wanted.

Back to the studio 😉