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Wendyy Nguyen

My Tips For Staying Productive And Intentional As An Artist With A Full Time Job

Welcome back to the blog! Today, I’m diving into a topic I’ve been passionate about for a long time—one I’m constantly learning about and working to integrate into my daily life. It’s a toolkit of habits that helps me align with my best self—living with more intention, doing more of what I love, and staying present in each moment.


I currently work full-time as a Plant Metallurgist, which means following a Fly-In Fly-Out schedule: I spend eight days at the worksite, then six days off before flying back. When I started, I thought I’d have those six days completely free to pour into my art business. But I quickly learned that running a small business involves much more than creating art—it’s about building designs, developing as an artist and entrepreneur, sampling products, handling marketing, admin, and much more. It requires a steady flow of energy, attention, and time.


Alongside this, I’ve been on a journey of self-care and recovery after facing burnout at the end of 2022. It’s taken nearly two years to feel like myself again—to feel safe in my body, to regain energy, and to rediscover joy in what I do. During this time, self-care and connecting with loved ones became essential parts of my healing.


Balancing work, business, and personal life has come down to productivity and creating good habits. I went through a period of feeling overwhelmed, as if there was never enough time. Then, I began tracking where my time went each day and realized that while I wasn’t spending four hours on my business, I was spending over three hours on my phone. In a world full of distractions competing for our attention, reclaiming our focus and acting with intention is crucial. By redirecting that focus to actions that truly serve us, we can get closer to where we want to be.


Through trial and error, I’ve discovered productivity tips and habits that have helped me build an efficient, fulfilling routine. Some days I slip back into old habits, but I strive each day to keep moving forward. While these strategies work well for me, I know routines are highly personal; my hope is that this blog offers you a bit of inspiration to create one that truly supports you. And it’s so important to show ourselves kindness along the way, understanding that falling back into old habits isn’t a failure. Change takes time, and progress happens one day at a time.


Here are my top productivity tips:


Minimise DISTRACTIONS


In today’s world, where we’re constantly bombarded by stimuli and technology designed to capture our attention, it’s essential to create some space and distance from distractions that pull us away from what we truly want to accomplish. Setting up a system with dedicated time blocks for potentially distracting activities—like checking email or social media—can prevent these habits from creeping into the rest of our day. A minute or two here and there might seem harmless, but over time, it really adds up.


Another useful strategy for reducing distractions is creating a barrier to entry by removing them from your environment. This makes it less likely you’ll feel tempted. For example, if you find yourself checking your phone often, try using app blockers, charging your phone in another room, or keeping it out of sight. If watching TV is a habit, unplug the TV and stash the remote somewhere out of reach.


By making distractions harder to access, we give ourselves more time and space to consciously decide between indulging in them or focusing on something more meaningful. This added layer of resistance means it takes more effort to engage in the distraction, which is often enough to stop it altogether.


Flowers and Berries Watercolour Botanical Illustration Painting Floral Flowers

SCHEDULING AND TIME BLOCKING


I'm a big advocate of time blocking and have been using this method long before I even knew it had a name. I plan my day from the moment I wake up until I go to bed, organizing each part so I know what to expect and where my focus should be.


Time blocking involves dividing your day into dedicated chunks, assigning specific tasks or groups of tasks to each. By focusing on fewer tasks and giving each one your full attention, you're often much more productive than if you tried to tackle everything at once. Contrary to the popular belief in multitasking, our brains aren’t actually wired to handle more than one cognitive task at a time. In fact, studies show that it takes about 25 minutes to fully recover from an interruption and get back on track.


This approach provides a solid structure, allowing you to take control of your day. As the saying goes, “If you don’t control your schedule, your schedule will control you.” Time blocking boosts productivity by creating a clear framework, enhances focus, improves organization, and strengthens time management. When your day is planned out, you spend less time deciding what to focus on and less time bouncing between tasks. In our distraction-filled world, having a schedule to reference helps you quickly regain focus whenever you stray off track.


The key to making time blocking work, though, is flexibility. It’s important not to get discouraged when unexpected events disrupt your schedule. Your initial plan might not work the first time—or even the next few times—so it’s helpful to regularly check in, reflect on what worked, and adjust your schedule as needed to better align with your energy levels and commitments.


PLAN THE WEEK IN ADVANCE


"The stories about people who end up walking in circles when lost are actually true," said Jan Souman of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany. "People cannot walk in a straight line if they do not have absolute references, such as a tower or a mountain in the distance or the sun or moon, and often end up walking in circles.”


As an artist on the journey of building a small business, this insight hits home for me. Without a sense of direction and defined steps, it’s easy to feel like I'm walking in circles too. That’s why I plan a week in advance, making sure I’m balancing progress in my art business with my full-time job, personal life, and other commitments. With limited time, I focus on tackling three to four major tasks each break. To make this manageable, I’ve created a rotation list to address different aspects of my business every time I’m off.


When planning, I first note down life commitments and events, then layer in my business tasks. This gives me a clear snapshot of the week, highlighting my busier and more flexible days. On more demanding days, I’ll either tackle smaller tasks or allow myself creative time to simply paint and explore. On lighter days, I’ll schedule more focused, time-intensive tasks. With this system in place, I wake up each morning knowing exactly what needs attention that day. When life throws in distractions or disruptions, I can easily get back on track by looking at my list, saving myself the time and energy spent wondering what to do next. This approach keeps me moving forward, step by step, instead of wandering aimlessly.


Weekly Timetable for planning and productivity
Weekly Timetable

Time Tracking


For a while, I was constantly overwhelmed, feeling as though I had no time to get anything done. I’d set out with a list of goals, only to end up disappointed because I couldn’t accomplish them. To understand why, I decided to track everything I did over the course of a week—each activity and the time spent on it. To my surprise, I discovered I was spending up to five hours a day on my phone. I also noticed how much time went into other parts of my day: around three hours for my morning routine but only one to two hours on my art business. Seeing this breakdown gave me clarity, allowing me to rewrite my schedule and set specific goals to spend time more intentionally.


This week of time-tracking also revealed when and where I was most prone to distractions or interruptions. It helped me refine my daily structure: now, I do deep, focused work in the quiet of the morning, shortly after waking, when interruptions are rare, and I have time to myself.


Time-tracking has become a valuable tool for me, creating a clear boundary between my art business and personal life. I’ve set a goal of spending four hours a day on my business; once I reach those four hours, I feel satisfied pulling away from work to focus on self-care—exercise, yoga, meditation—or to spend quality time with my partner and family, rest, or travel. I’ve streamlined household tasks to a maximum of two hours a day and limited my phone use to just 30 minutes for social media and emails at the end of the day, as a small reward once I’ve completed what I set out to achieve.


FOCUS ON one THING AT A TIME


I used to think multitasking was a skill worth mastering, but I quickly realized that it left me spread too thin across too many tasks, ultimately getting very little done. As studies have shown, the human brain isn’t capable of truly multitasking with cognitive tasks; instead, our focus, quality, and output decline with each additional task we try to juggle.


In a world full of distractions, it’s easy to feel scattered, frantic, and overwhelmed. Focusing on just one task at a time helps me stay centred and grounded, free from the mental clutter of everything else I want or need to accomplish. I try to carry this “one-thing-at-a-time” approach throughout my day, whether I’m working on my business or managing simple daily tasks. For example, if I go to grab a charger from the other room, I’ll focus only on that task. Even if a thought pops up like, “Oh, I could also take out the trash,” I’ll jot it down and complete the charger task first, saving other ideas for later.


To help with single-tasking, I always keep a notepad nearby. When I’m focused on a particular task, my mind inevitably generates a list of other things to check or do (like emails), so instead of acting on those impulses, I write them down. As ideas come, I create a running list to handle later, during a break. Interestingly, by the time my break comes, I rarely feel the need to act on most of those ideas; they were simply in-the-moment urges—habits I used to fall into when I was constantly multitasking.


BREAK DOWN LARGE TASKS INTO SMALL, ACHIEVABLE GOALS (AND WRITE THEM DOWN!)


When faced with large tasks, I can easily feel overwhelmed, which sometimes leaves me paralysed and unable to take action. To manage this, I break down big projects into smaller, actionable steps and make sure to write each one down. This creates a sense of direction and gives me a clear, step-by-step path to follow. I feel a sense of accomplishment as I tick off each small task, seeing the progress unfold along the way.


For instance, one of my larger goals right now is to launch art prints on my website. Thinking of it as one big task feels overwhelming, as there are many steps involved. So, I break it down into smaller tasks: scanning the artwork, editing it in Photoshop, saving the print files in different colorways, uploading the prints to the shop, creating product photos, posting to Pinterest, and recording reels for Instagram and Pinterest to promote the launch. By having a list of each task, I know exactly what to focus on next, making the project more manageable and achievable.


Writing everything down also helps clear mental clutter, allowing me to stay more present each day. Our minds tend to hold onto countless ideas, tasks, and reminders, and without a system to empty and organize these thoughts, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Having it all laid out in front of me brings clarity and makes the journey forward feel much less daunting.


CHANGE "AND" TO "OR"


I recently came across the idea of replacing “and” with “or” in a video by Ali Abdaal, "5 lessons from one of the best books I’ve ever read", and it’s been a game-changer. Most days, I rarely manage to complete everything I set out to do—disruptions, distractions, and just the flow of life often knock me off my original plans. I used to aim to fit meditation, exercise, yoga, cooking, cleaning, travel, rest, and work on my art business all in one day. When I didn’t get it all done or missed one thing, I’d end up disappointed in myself and felt the day wasn't productive. My rigid “all or nothing” approach set me up for failure because it meant there was only one way to feel accomplished and multiple ways to fall short.


Shifting my mindset to replace “and” with “or” has made a huge difference. Now, there are many ways to have a fulfilling day, and almost none to feel it’s a failure. For example, instead of needing to do yoga, meditation, and exercise, now I feel good if I do yoga, meditation, or exercise. If I work on my art business for four hours or have a painting session, that counts as a productive day. As long as I’ve incorporated some form of self-care, art business, or daily upkeep, I consider it a win.


This mindset shift has kept me feeling positive and fulfilled by the end of each day, which leaves me more motivated to tackle the next one.


I hope this blog has inspired you in some way and offered tools to help you create a more productive and intentional life.


Thank you so much for reading.

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