Organizing Your Creative Career

When our alumni get asked what the most important skill they learned in graduate school was, nearly all will say, "Time management!" And yet, recently a student asked to recommend a book which would teach this skill for creative professionals, and I had no go-to title.

I realized my own unconscious bias--that time management was something one learns from doing, from observing what works for others in the industry, and that one cobbles together a selection of tricks and techniques in a personalized way. Then, along came this book and here we have it: a road map, explanations, documentation of techniques.

Chandra has some excellent advice on streamlining creative productivity. I particularly appreciated the section discussing why you should outsource elements of the work that you can, such as, say, hiring someone to prime your canvases or buying pre-primed where you can, to conserve your energies for the artistic work of painting. I constantly reinforce this with my graduate students in terms of planning workflow: if you can delegate it, do so and focus your expertise on the tasks no one but you can take care of. I particularly appreciate the way the author addresses the stereotype of the Chaotic Genius. This stereotype is alive and well, even among people who decide to pursue graduate study in their artistic disciplines.

Chandra also includes some pearls of wisdom such as "don't hire your friends/family" and "the Pomodoro method really does result in work/rest balance", and goes on to explain why. She also has some great tips on accounting, networking, and streamlining the more "boring" parts of being a success in a creative field.

One thing that struck me as odd about this book is the life-organization/scheduling/admin section. It was written as if smartphones don't exist. Chandra offers lots of solid advice about tracking different types of tasks and responsibilities, but she's developed a system that is entirely paper-based for which one must adopt the use of a ruled notebook, a diary, Post-It notes, a physical calendar, and a three-tray file for paperwork sorting. It struck me as a bit archaic and perhaps even difficult to apply to a digitally-connected artist. I got some tips from this section, but most are applicable to how I use extant apps on my iPhone. It's strange, because throughout the section on organizing your creative process, she DOES talk about digital organizational tools you can use (folders of bookmarks, templates you find online, etc). I dunno. It doesn't make the advice itself obsolete, but I mentally substituted useful apps for the physical-world techniques throughout that whole bit.

Basically, this book is what I will recommend in future to students who ask for resources on how to manage their time, how to increase productivity, and how to not just survive as a working artist but actually succeed (and still have time/energy for other things, like a family life or athletic pursuits or whatever).

I received an advance readers' copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was so helpful for me, as someone who has a career on the creative side (writer). I feel like a lot of creative types struggle with organization, and this book is very mindful of that. It knows its audience well and both addresses and finds solutions for the reasons many people with creative careers have trouble managing organization. Perfect for whether you're starting out in your creative field or are in the middle of it and just need to get it under control.

Organizing Your Creative Career is an excellent book for anyone pursuing a career as an entrepreneur in the creative field. This subject is hardly taught in schools yet, so important when you want to run your business in any form of art successfully.
The book aims at a vast spectrum of creatives; there's a lot of difference between writers, actors, and painters, for instance, so some parts will not be necessary for every form of creativity, but when you are looking for a book to get a better view of organizing your creative business, it is a must-read.

Organizing Your Creative Career by Sheila Chandra is a book that I think people just starting out in a creative career as well as those who are finding things a struggle and need helpful advice to get things back on track eould find useful. I have ADD so I found the chapters on organizing your work space to be especially pertinent and I am implementing a number of the ideas she suggested and finding them to be beneficial. She includes chapters on financial planning and budgeting, organizing your workspace, when to get professional help, creativity and well being and Self Promotion. A number of the things she says are just common sense but having them explained clearly and with step by step plans for implementing them makes this book a great resource to keep on hand. I received an ARC of this book to read through NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. Publishing Date January 14, 2020. #NetGalley #OrganizingYourCreativeCareer #SheilaChandra #WatkinsPublishing

There's a huge amount of information contained in this book - giving detailed guidance on how to manage different aspects of a creative career. The chapter on the home office is exactly what I am needing at the moment, finding it diffiult to manage systems related to my writing. I would highly recommend!

This book challenges the perception that creative people are messy and/or disorganized by presenting a framework for organizing your creative career. It covers a wide range of topics for organisation within creative careers including organization in your physical space (both at home and at work) and organization within your head space. A very-much needed book.