The next Business Basics for Freelancers class is here! I'm trying out a new venue: Caffeine Underground in Bushwick! Having it at a cafe is great because you can also get caffeine and food during the session. Please sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/business-basics-for-freelancers-tickets-48501544425

So I've been wanting to do a blog post about the evolution of my "to do" wall for awhile, and I have a free post about part of it on my Patreon. Since the business class is approaching there's no time like the present to delve a little more into it! Part of the class focuses on productivity and organizational skills, which is at the heart of succeeding at any project. I don't get into THIS much detail about the "to do wall" in the class but this is my blog and I do what I want :) The main takeaway from this is to try new and different things with managing tasks and projects to see what work, and what DOESN'T work.

I read "Getting Things Done" by David Allen and started a "to do wall" like this. I'm not going to go into the whole GTD method here, but I realized the need to divide tasks into "paid" (teaching, weekly comic) and "unpaid" (cleaning, figuring out computer problems, etc). I also made a huge category for "unpaid but could possibly lead to $" which as an artist, a lot of things fell under. There's no guarantee that I'll make a killing at comic conventions, so every task associated with those fell under that category. Also personal art projects. In any case, I realized the need to organize this further.

There, that's a bit more organized. I divided tasks into time categories, like ones that may only take 15 minutes vs a half hour. However, you'll see the "career" portion of the wall has a TON of stuff. Part of GTD is a "brain dump" which means getting everything out of your head onto paper, but the method lacks how to prioritize. So I ended up having a lot of "good ideas" on my "to do wall" that were very low priority ideas, and they became overwhelming.

TADAA!! Much better! Those previous "to do walls" were also from the time I was teaching comics part time, but when I switched to full time freelancing, I had to make a major change. I got to control how I spent every hour of my day, so what would my ideal day look like? I go over more of this in the Business Basics for Freelancers class on Tuesday August 21st, from 2-5p at Caffeine Underground, 447 Central Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11221. Early Bird tickets are $50 online and walk-ins are $55 at the door. Hope to see you there!

PS: Hope these "to do walls" weren't too overwhelming. This method works for me, but you may find a better method that works for you to keep track of tasks.