August has been a busybusy month! Between wedding invitations, envelope addressing, custom Etsy orders, and getting out in the hot sun, there aren't enough hours in the day. I'm also working on getting more product created, calligraphed, printed before the end of the month. phew! I've never needed to plan and organize my days as much as these past few months. There's just so many things to keep on top of- the jumble of work orders, appointments, tasks. Since I have spent a good amount of time thinking about and working through this, I thought I would share the ways I (try to) stay organized.

My moleskine planner is my WORLD. Many who know me can attest to my inability to retain stuff (anything) if I haven't written it down. Which is why I need a good old fashioned planner. I'm usually making my weekly plans on a Sunday or early Monday morning, and then check out my planner everyday to see what I want to tackle that day. I also add more notes and appointments in the daily section.

It's not just a planner to me; it's where I keep track of books I want to read, birthdays, and awesome quotes I've come across. It's my treasure chest!

My only complaint about this planner is that it can't handle any ink much thicker than a ball point pen. Major bummer for a calligrapher! But I found these amazing pens in Japan that have been making me so happy everytime I use them. They are Pilot Frixion pens, and they are ERASABLE with the little plastic ball on the end. It's the coolest thing ever, and of course, I bought it in every colour.

I manually 'sync' (ha-ha) my planner with my google calendar. I use this online calendar for when I'm out and about and need to keep track of something, add a meeting or appointment, or add a note. It works pretty great, and bonus! I can add cute emoticons to events and meetings.

I've tried using some online applications previously but haven't been successful at updating it (how many organization methods can one use??). Trello is a really great online tool which I've tried to use in the past; I might give this one another try because I love the idea of having all the updates from one project in one place (rather than rummaging through a file or emails, which is my current, super inefficient, method).

This week I am re-printing my business cards on some nice stock I found at Aboveground, and printing some linocuts that have been sitting around for ages. Excited to get that done and up on my Etsy shop soon! Also got a lot of custom invitation stuff going on, I'm looking forward to sharing some of that work soon! I've started keeping a little journal by my bed- with the crazy busy days, it's hard for me to shut off my brain immediately at the end of the day (it's been a shocker to my typical asleepin30seconds self!). The stuff's pretty illegible because of my half closed eyes operating in bad lighting, but it's so great to get it out of my head! And who knows, maybe there's something there!

I'd love to hear about other organization methods- please feel free to drop in a comment below on your favourite way to make sense of crazy busy days!

Have a lovely, productive week!

Pri

Wow, It's been over a month since my last blog post! I've been guilting myself about not posting often enough on the blog, but then I started to think about why I've been so inconsistent with it, and why it sometimes feels like a chore. I have a bunch of drafts started but can't seem to get past that stage! It's been difficult for me to constantly be 'online'. I've read so many articles that talk about the importance of staying 'top of mind' with your followers by posting pictures, blogging, and talking about projects I'm working on. I find that I can't be consistent with it. Some days I want to just be alone in my studio, quietly working. It's a double edged sword- it can be a safe, comfortable environment where there is no judgement or expectations, but it can be also very isolating. I find I work well under pressure, so having external deadlines can be super motivating, but the pressure and stress is nothing like I've experienced before- it's so personal and deep.

It's all such a roller coaster! Even with my productivity levels. Some days, I'm ticking off SO many to do's on my list, and at other times I find I can only do one thing a day and feel creatively stuck or inadequate. And when this happens, I'm so far from thinking about posting a picture on instagram about fun things I'm working on! It's interesting how the social media persona we sometimes portray for 'business' purposes conflict with our 'real' selves. In my current life where my professional and personal worlds are constantly colliding, it makes it hard to separate the two.

This book review I read on one of my favourite sites, Brain Pickings, made me think that maybe it's not about separating our 'business' and 'personal' lives. We tend to think in terms of the all too familiar 'work/life' balance measuring scale. But what if we didn't measure these different aspects of our lives, and instead made an attempt to be happy and at ease everyday, no matter what we are doing? What a crazy idea! :)

Anyway, here's what I've been working on this past month: I completed invitations and envelope calligraphy for a wedding and a baby shower, completed some custom calligraphy projects, and applied for a craft show (eek!!) I'm also completing a special project for a wedding coming up at the end of the month, which I will tell you about soon! I've also received details to my first calligraphy exchange! It's organized by Flourish Forum, and this exchange is to send a favourite quote to seven other people! I'm super excited about it and will be posting pictures of my work in the coming weeks.

Until then, it's more wedding invitation work (wedding season is definitely here!!), calligraphy quotes...and maybe I'll finally get around to finishing my darn business cards! And an update to my website- soon! yay!

Oh, if you're looking for cards that can be used for any occassion- new home, birthdays, anniversaries, I have a cute set of cards up on my Etsy shop. :)

Priyanka