By Melanie Bindon, Art Gym Denver

Have you ever looked around your studio and seen a multitude of in-progress works nearing completion, yet been full of new ideas and ready to sketch?

When working on so many projects it is hard to ensure definite progress is made on each one. It is easier to start new things and lose others along the way.

By implementing a more definite structure, it is possible to create a system to support each endeavor and track progress.

Ultimately, you need to:

• know what needs to be done
• establish expectations for deadlines
• prioritize each project and its needs
• be relentless
• integrate project scheduling

Although this might sound like a cut and dry approach to a fluid creation process, think of it as the supporting structure that allows you to remain loose in your artistic practice.

When defining what needs to be done, establish dynamic intentions for each project. This includes creating SMART goals and action plans.

Consistently refine these lists to adapt new information and clarify necessities. To make things happen, you need to know what is most important and apply this to every single interaction.

Prioritize your overarching goals and detailed action plans:

• Priority 1: things that must be done and cannot possibly succeed without
• Priority 2: everything else

If you’re having difficulty prioritizing, be able to answer the tough questions:

• If there are multiple problems, which one is most important?
• What is the easiest way to solve this problem and still meet the goal?

Keep it real. If important issues aren’t being addressed, you’re wasting your time.

Know the critical path-the shortest sequence of work that can complete a project

• Which tasks are time-critical?
• Which tasks are inter-dependent?
• Look for bottlenecks or critical points
  • Is enough attention being paid to these points?
  • Is the real issue one that isn’t currently being worked on?

It’s easier to procrastinate till a problem goes away or be content with a partial solution than to only look for answers which meet your project’s priority 1 goals.

Be relentless

• tackle projects head on
• consider alternatives and when those don’t work find more
• believe that 99% of the time there is a solution to the problem
  • maybe finding the solution means redefining the problem
• work smart not just hard

Working on multiple projects simultaneously means having to schedule different tasks and phases of projects at the same time. Integrate schedules to guarantee clear definable progress on concurrent projects.

Remember that any progress is an improvement, no matter how small.

For more help:

• https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa480154.aspx
• http://www.johnpaulcaponigro.com/blog/16181/developing-personal-projects-4/

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