The 7-Hour Workweek for Artists

Lately, I’ve been struggling with doing it all. Motherhood has brought new time and energy constraints to my life. I want to be everywhere at once - with my 15-month old son, but also making as much art as I possibly can. I know many of you probably struggle with this exact same dilemma. Some of you are probably yawning as you reading this, thinking you’re sick of hearing this story. Tale as old as time. Even if you don’t have children, I know you can relate though. I used to hate when friends of mine with kids would say that I don’t understand the time constraints of parenthood. And while maybe that was true in a small way, balancing work and life is a human struggle. A struggle that gets magnified with any big life transition, not just having children.

What a lot of people don’t talk about is the what now. What is my bare minimum as an artist? What am I doing to fit it all in? Maybe you read the book the 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss ten years ago. I know I did. It changed my life at the time. But then I kind of forgot about it. I recently picked up the book again and paged through it. Since then, I’ve been thinking a lot. The big question on my mind is - is the 4-hour workweek possible for an artist? Because that’s sounding pretty good to me right now.

Let’s start with what my bare minimum is, and then I’ll get to that. I used to try to crank out one blog post and one art print every week. I’ve given myself the new goal of finishing one blog post, one art print, and one newsletter per month (just for now). The nice thing is that the blog post and art print provide content for my newsletter, so it’s all interconnected. My second goal is to write and illustrate one children’s book per year, because that’s where my true passion lies. As far as client work, I only take on projects with big brands that get my name out there. It’s hard to justify taking on projects just for the money anymore, when single art prints in my shop have made $30,000 plus in sales. No client I’ve worked with would pay that much for one illustration, so it’s hard to justify spending my time there. But I’m aware a lot of people still have no idea who I am, hence wanting to get my name out there.

So that’s really all I’m trying to do right now. You may notice I keep saying “just for now” or “right now” because it is really hard to check my ambition at the door as I take on this additional role of motherhood. For ten years, I was a solopreneur with no kids. Work filled a lot of my time. What I’m telling myself is that now is time to reap the benefits of the seeds I sowed all those years. I can afford to put energy into another worthy pursuit. Because right now, I haven’t decided if I want to get help watching my son. Aside from some help from family, I’m with him all day, illustrating evenings and weekends. It’s been tiring, but I can’t seem to shake the idea that I don’t want to miss this time with him.

For decades, I’ve had the goal of creating courses, a youtube channel, and a podcast, but I realize now probably isn’t the time to start a new venture. Not until my son is in school. I even shut down my membership program The Green Paint Society, because it was hard to make time for it. Also, financially it didn’t make sense. I’m just enjoying consuming the content from other artist membership programs right now. I don’t know how they do it though! You would need thousands of subscribers per month for it to make sense to put the time in. And it would take a while to get to that point with people constantly signing up and then quitting and then re-signing up. I’m loving being on the subscriber side of it and not having to worry about all that. I’ve learned so much too.

So how many hours does it take for me to accomplish my bare minimum? Well, I probably spend an average of 3 hours per week shipping art prints. On any given week, I’m shipping 20-60 prints. I know that’s a big range, but that’s the nature of selling art online. Every week is different. I have a finely tuned system that allows me to crank out orders quickly. Creating an art print probably takes me 3 hours per month. A blog post - one hour per month, and a newsletter - 2 hours per month. So that’s 6 hours per month for floating tasks (or 1.5 hours per week). To finish a 16-spread children’s book, I would estimate at least 100 hours, so that’s about 2 hours per week for the whole year. The wild card is client work, but as I said that’s not a requirement. So, my 4-hour workweek is really a 7-hour workweek if I round up. If I take on client work, I just need to know what I’m signing up for and ask myself if the deadline is doable.

So, that makes my 7-hour bare minimum workweek a one hour per day feat.

Suddenly, that feels doable. While this workweek is personal to me, I’m sharing because I think everyone should consider what their bare minimum is and try doing only that for a while. Hopefully, this gives you a good starting point. Maybe you aren’t into children’s books but you have a Youtube channel. Figure out how you can adapt this to your own life. As a former workaholic, I know that life isn’t about work. Work should simply give you the means to have the life you want. And it’s important that you enjoy your work, because that joy spills into the rest of your life.

The 80/20 principle states that 80% of the results come from 20% of the efforts and I really think that’s true. When I’m being hard on myself, my perception is that I’ve let my business take a back seat. However, I don’t actually think my work has suffered since having a baby. I actually think it’s brought me the focus I needed. When I get an hour of free time, I really use it. Before motherhood, I felt like I was gathering firewood by picking up a bunch of little sticks all day. Effective, but not efficient. Now, I have an ax and when I have time, I’m looking for one big log that will give me all the firewood I need for a while. I’m purely about efficiency these days.

You might be wondering if my income has taken a hit, and the answer is no. While my income isn’t steadily increasing every year like it used to, I’ve maintained what I’ve made the last few years. The only way this has been possible is because the majority of my income comes from my shop. As long as I’m getting those orders out, everything else is a bonus. I hope that in working on my children’s books and continuing to get my name out there through client work, blog posts, and my newsletter, I’m sowing more seeds for the future too.

You may not have a profitable print shop yet, but I think it’s a good goal to strive for. I posted weekly prints for years with hardly any sales. Just keep sowing seeds that will eventually allow you to have your ideal workweek. It’s easy to go for the low hanging fruit like a quick client project that leads to nowhere, or a custom painting of someone’s house just for the money. That stuff is okay for paying the bills, as long as it doesn’t fill the majority of your time. Think about focusing your efforts on what’s going to get you the future you want. I’ve been doing this for ten years, so that’s a good reminder that these things take time. And I still have a ways to go in figuring out my ideal workweek.

I guess motherhood has given me a major mindset shift. I used to subconsciously judge my success on how often I was working and on how many things I had cooking at once. Now I judge my success by distance traveled. Am I making big strides in the little time I have? If the answer is yes, I need to work on giving myself some credit.

So what does your bare minimum workweek look like and how many hours would you say it is? Let me know in the comments below!