Staying Focused

Relic of a Memory No.1 Copyright2009 DonnaBranch All Rights Reserved

Glass, cast, kilnformed, carved with battuto, sandblasteted, acid-etched

Maintaining focus is difficult for most of us at some time or other, so I wanted to share some interesting information that I came across while doing some reading because I thought it might be helpful to others.

One of the articles that I found helpful is Lori Woodward Simmons article "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" on Clint Watson's Fine Art Views (which I highly recommend). I thought Lori's method of staying focused should work well, particularly for artists. Lori discusses how most artists perform a lot of tasks during the day that are unrelated and that we often get sidetracked very easily. Her theme is that we, as artists, are visual; and if your work that you have to do that night or the next day is not right in front of your eyes, so that you can see it, it is completely out of your mind. I know this is true for me. She goes on to say that because we wear many hats as artists and business owners, we probably will not ever be able to "do it all", but that we can build powerful productivity habits if we get the "the real work out the night before, so that I see it first thing in the morning". Great article!

Most of us know the basic rules of how to stay focused and it is written about by Dave Cheong in his blog, but I don't think it hurts any of us to review these now and then, so here is another one at Michael Angier.

What did you think about these articles? I would love to hear in the comments.