I make a to-do list for the next week, at the end of the week, and post it at my desk (where I spend most of my time) It really helps, until I get lazy XD

Honestly i manage everything for my friend. she does the artwork, i do all the leg work of getting payments, posting auctions, facilitating communications between her and commissioners/buyers. i work for free or art, do you need help? XD (i have know idea how helpful i would actually be)

I just don't do much and rely on furs to smack me upside the head to remind me. :)

Sometimes I make a THINGS THAT NEED TO BE DONE list, if I keep forgetting them. Normally the act of writting something down is enough to make you remember it.

I also have a small journal like book where I [usually] write down all the commission information I get. So i'll write who it is, what they want, wether or not they paid in advance, how to contact them, etc. I don't do this as often as I should. If I was more keen on it, I'd be better off.

Easy: I don't.

Largely because I work at random, and I rarely get commissions.

Usually I have people whine at me if they don't see progress for a while.

I had a to-do list but I never updated it

I really should change this.

With $6000 worth of commissions business, I've found it neccessary to make an Excell spreadsheet to keep everything up to date. I organize it so it automatically alerts me when someone hasn't updated me on a paid commission for more than two weeks, when a commission is taking longer than a month to complete, and a whole bunch of general rules I have programmed into it. I'm usually flexible with the rules, rather than pouncing the artists and saying "The red light is blinking, which means you were supposed to be done already!" I try to work with artists to the best of my potential, although some people are a real pain in the ass to work with=p

And it's my experience that writing out a schedule by hand and pen doesn't work. Computer has been the only thing that has worked for me, since I use it almost every day.

Okay, I thought I knew my way around Excel, but you've got me stumped... How do you get it to blink and remind you and stuff??? I must know this!!!

It's a snap-on organizer program one of my friends found and installed a while back. I'd have to bug him and figure out where he got it. It was some hacker site or something like that. Custom made, I paid $1 for it I think. The .dll registry works well in it though, so it should interface with Widows XP very well. At least it does on my computer. Don't know about Vista, but the Excel programming hasn't changed that much. I'll ask my buddy if he can copy the registry out of my system and send it to you, so you don't have to surf for it. I think you might be able to program the cell formats special in Work's spreadsheet routine, but Word has a filesize limit, so my current spreadsheet is too large to run in Word.

I'll look around though. I honestly wasn't the one who did it, but I should figure out how you could do that. There are other spreadsheet-oganizer programs out there made especially for what I'm doing, but they can cost as much as $100+. Spreadsheet organizers with programable cell equations/formulas are what you're looking for overall for really simple organization solutions. At least that's been my experience=)

I've been playing with Excel, I found this wonderful thing called"Conditional Formatting". Took me a while to figure it out, but it does something similar... It can change the color of a cell if a date is, say, X number of days from today's date or such. So no need for additional programs (I have bad luck with too many DLs on my computer) but thank you for the tips, and thanks for inspiring me to dig deeper and learn new stuff!

Yep, just figured out how the whole blinking thing works, and it requires Basic Programming to be used in each cell funtion. I don't know programming, so it's a little over my head. I will note that Excel has a "color" that is actually a blinking option, so if you can program the color to be triggered on a specific day/event, you could probably make it blink, although I don't know if it would blink with color, or just the cell information. Anyways, I hope my info was helpful. I know how messy dealing with complex schedules can be.

BTW, a quick question. Why aren't you taking commissions? I'm sorry if I bother you too much on the issue, but your answer will shut me up and I'll stop pestering you. I'm just curious really, especially if it's an issue we can work out. You should know by now that I really like your work, in any case=)

For one, they kill my muse. For two, I always hate how they turn out, but I can't seem to get them to look better.

Oi, I have such horrible memory problems too.
I usually go into MS Paint and type up a list of things I need to do then set it to my desktop background then I also write a list on paper of what I need to do and tape it to my bathroom mirror. xD;
I'm lazy and forgetful so I usually forget to make lists. Anyway...

I've had a similar problem, I tend to make a list of names and what I owe them on my footer of my journals to remind me every time I check my page

I'd prolly recommend a spreadsheet of some sort. Have different sections for different types of items, and checkboxes for each step in a process, etc. Failing that, just keep notes, your new phone has a great note-keeping system, you can just jot something down in it every time you do something important worth remembering (like registering for a con, receiving a payment, etc.)

I don't organize anything. ^^;;;; I usually rely on the honesty of my customers while collecting pay for multiple auctions. Heh. Otherwise I'd never keep it all straight... who owes what and for what, etc.

I TRIED to make different folders in my email and set up rules that email from different sources go into those folders automatically.. and that works for Yahoo but Gmail is my primary email and doesn't have that option.. ^^;;; D'oh.

Go to the Seattle Salvation Army and find yourself a bigger whiteboard. Something so huge it screams, "WRITE ON ME!!"

what does organized mean?

I tell people I have a memory like a sieve, but that's a lie. If I can't remember, it's because I just didn't give a shit. Otherwise, I'll remember.

Doesn't help you much, I know. So I suggest getting a couple email accounts and setting up your mail client to access all of them and sort your mail accordingly. For instance, you would have four accounts, and four inbox folders. Each account would have a different purpose (art sales, personal, business, auctions) and it would be tied to a different inbox folder with a descriptive label. You could have separate folders within folders to say different things, like a folder for completed commissions, a folder for commissions in progress, and a folder for commissions that you're talking to people about. Someone IMs you about a commission, you talk about it, you get paid. The commissioner's emails get moved to the in progress folder. When you finish and mail it out, you move their emails to the completed folder.

Hmm. I write things down on those little note paper thingies, sometimes on something larger, and then stick it on some visible spot I look at every day. Like on the wall in front of my desk or on my refrigerator.

I don't. Have anything to do, that is. XD

I'm not an artist, but I have organized for a few. I'm an expert at categorizing and can help you out.

I haven't had to deal with the whole commision juggling problem. But personally I'd make a list, probably a short one of the couple commisions I took and just try to keep it somewhere you go often. And for longer term stuff...maybe get a planner or something like that.

crontab and a few alarm clocks.

Advice from a disorganized person:


Spreadsheet software is a good idea, especially if there are ready-made planning templates to use.

The Microsoft office hardware that might have been bundled with your computer start-up software may have a planning organizer/ diary program that you can use.

If you prefer hard-copy, as Ethelwulf says, you can get a "planner" from an office store -- which is like a calendar booklet for scheduling and taking notes. Several different styles.

Another old-tech hard-copy touch method is using 3 x 5 inch file cards, (even color coded), in a small box or container. One card per project. They can be color-coded, divided by category or date due. And you can always flip-through them and shuffle stuff to the front or back.

I make a to-do list myself. Both written and online. I keep seperate documents for commissions, cash spent for cons, contact lists, etc.

I'd recommend Excel for most of this though. You can keep everything organised in a table, and all your information there. Phone numbers of the people, email addresses, character descriptions, how much they owe you, how much it ended up being in the end, how they'll be paying, date paid, etc etc etc.

If you don't want to go digital you can go to Staples or Office Depot and get a giant spreadsheet for times when you won't be around a computer.

So far I keep track of my art projects with a word file. Whenever I wonder what else needs to be done, I just open my project list.

I keep track of suit jobs on a whiteboard and in tubs, so suit parts stay with who they belong to

Organized? What's that? ^^; *laughs* Seriousely, it's hard for me to be organized! ^^;

There's a million ways to go about it; the thing you want to avoid is investing a lot of time into something you never use.

While I'm not an artist, I do deal with deadlines a lot -- personally, I use a Palm Tungsten. The ToDo application lets you do all sorts of funky, complex recurring things, like "Do this on the third of every month" or "do this thirty days after the last time you did it." There's actually a pretty decent chance your computer might have a program like that already installed; you might want to consider poking around for something called a "Personal Information Manager," "PIM", or "To Do List." You might be able to borrow something from a friend, just to see if you like it or not: that way you wouldn't need to spend money on something you don't use or like. Snistertaz's spreadsheet could probably be tweaked to something you liked. I used to have something similar to that to keep track of my comic book orders; Excel is really wonderful tool for that sort of thing.

For date-driven things like conventions you might want to consider an appointment calendar. That might also work for commisions, if you schedule your work in advance.

And then there's always paper: when accepting a commission, get a copy of the deal email with client contact information and a description of the job. Under that, add the boilerplate text

Commission on_______

Payment Received on ___________

Mailed on ____________

Print it out, and fill in the text with dates.

Once the client acknowledges getting the art, throw the document away, or file it.

You need to write the stuff down you need to keep track off. If you are a poor multitasker, this is a must.

I usually keep it in a journal, that is specifically designed as a to do list, but then again, I don't get that many commissions and junk, so its not a big deal.

OMG Tiomara your avatar cracks me up. Sorry no relevance to this discussion but I had to comment while I saw it.

Oh and being a desk jockey MS Outlook helps me a lot. And spreadsheets - I can whip em out like no other. *beams with a little pride*

I'm a writer and work where they keep trying to make me a bureaucrat, so of course I use paper. Lots of paper. :D

I have a pocket calendar I carry around. I got into that habit because they used to buy them for me, before our budget crisis, and I found them handy. That's good for scheduling and future stuff.

For everything else, I carry around some 3x5 cards. The rule is, always have them, and whenever you think of something-- be it an idea, a to-do, or some observation you'd like to remember-- write it down RIGHT THEN.

3x5s are great. You can carry a few of them held together by a Bulldog clip (an arrangement people call the Hipster PDA; you can Google it) for your basic information you always need. As for the rest, keep things on loose cards. Take them home and sort them out later, however you like. Just reading them at random is kind of interesting too.

Two words -- file folders. All my convention paperwork goes in there, licenses, paper receipts, and sketches for artworks in progress. I do keep records in electronic form, but if you make spreadsheets keeping track of commissions, it's a good idea to print one out and tape it to the file so you will have it if your computer explodes. The spreadsheet should have the commissioner's mailing address and email address on it.

Remember? We're supposed to *remember* things? Geeze. I knew I was forgetting something.

Seriously. All of the above suggestions have merit. The reason one needs memory aids is that the world is getting too complex not to use them. However, don't get so wrapped up in recording things that need doing that you actually have no time left to DO the things you've scheduled.

Another good way to reduce the complexity of life is to learn how to say 'no'.

You might be able to do *anything* you want to in life, but you can't do *everything*.

There's just not enough time.

One word: POSTITs.

*nod nods* I have TERRIBLE short term memory.

There are two small tools you can use that will help.

One is a calendar on your wall, corny as it sounds, or a small calendar near your computer where you'll see it every day.

Another is by making a text file with notes in it and saving it to your desktop. Once again, somewhere where you'll see it every day :) That's how I do it, yay!

-Zi

I don't use a white board, I keep a notepad next to my work station with info like.

Commissions
"Date of Commission Order" - "Name here" - "Is it paid" - "Stage of Completion"

Projects
"Project Name" - "Computer File name" - "Stage Of Completion"

Comic Schedule
"Name of Comic" - "Previous Page Completed" - "Page to be Completed/Stage of Completion" - "Page to be Released"

Journal's I generally update when something significant occurs good or bad.

its called a folder named commisions and a notepad :P

this may be old school but Pen & Note book

Organization is for people with skills in things and such.

I keep a "to be colored" folder on my Mac, with subfolders for various projects. I then forget about the project until six months later, go "oh, yeah, I was supposed to do that" and then bap something brilliant out in two hours.

Not really a recommended method. ;)

My only suggestion is to stop doing too many things at once. Forgive me if I missed something... I have dyslexia... but the way I do it is just to focus on the most important task.

If there is any to-do, I will write it down. It's nice that I have a calendar program on my computer, but I forget to open it.

Writing things down makes me think about what I need to do in the future. I know what I should do in the future:

1. Get groceries
2. Fold laundry
3. Send out tax return
4. Purchase flight to Pittsburgh

et cetera, et cetera.

Once I have some sort of personal priority established, then I can organize.

Just remember one thing: we all make mistakes and forget things.

Focus on what is most important first.

lol I still have trouble believing that you "forgot" you met me at AnthroCon... xD

Hahaha well I remember it now, but yeah, seriously, my memory is THAT slippery.