Checklist or Chaos? Rethinking Time Management in Creative Life
- anartistslament
- Jul 13, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: Jul 31, 2025
What do you use to organize your day—a checklist or a schedule? Or do you just fly by the seat of your creative pants?
As a mother and a teacher, my entire day used to run on a clock. Diaper changes. Nap time. Snack time. Social Studies lessons. Parent conferences. Everything had its time slot, and that structure carried me through decades of life. But now?
Now, I’m retired from education. My children are grown, creating their own schedules. And I—well, I’m supposed to be creating art, building a business, and enjoying “all this time” that everyone thinks I have.
Only, it’s not quite that simple.
Without externally imposed routines, I’ve found myself struggling with how to use my time. I’ll make a plan for the day—check emails, work on a pattern, upload a product to one of my shops—and inevitably, something derails it. Sometimes the derailment is delightful (an extra-long brunch on the beach with friends and loved ones); other times, it’s a 40-minute wait at some random place like a tire shop.
Take, for instance, a day in 2021. The low tire pressure light on my Toyota Corolla came on. I could have filled it myself, but I opted to stop by a local tire company while I was out grocery shopping. They usually check and fill it in five minutes. Not that day. It turns out a drop in temperature brought out the entire town with the same idea. What should’ve taken five minutes took forty-five. And that, right there, is how a tightly scheduled day turns into frustration.
It used to make me feel like I was failing at time management; I thought, “Maybe I just need a stricter routine.” But then I realized: what I really need is flexibility with intention.
So I gave myself permission to ditch the rigid time blocks. Instead, I now write a simple checklist of tasks for the day—things I want to get done. Sometimes I get through them all. Sometimes life steps in with something else. But I’ve stopped measuring productivity by the clock. I’m measuring it by momentum.
Because as artists, some things take longer than expected—responding to emails, photographing work, or falling down a rabbit hole of color palettes. Other days, we fly through a task we thought would take all morning.
I don’t need a minute-by-minute schedule anymore. I need flow. Grace. Flexibility.
So here’s what I’m learning: A checklist gives me freedom and structure, but also permission to shift. A schedule can be useful—but only if I don’t become a slave to it. And some days? Some days I just breathe, rest, and start again tomorrow.
How do you organize your creative life? Are you a checklist lover or a schedule devotee—or something in between? I’d love to know.
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