7 minutes that make a difference

While we’re talking about getting organized . . .

I rushed through reading The Seven Minute Difference by Allyson Lewis. It took longer than 7 minutes, but the gist of it is that little actions add up to a lot. This is a fast read that might benefit you, although the language tends to be geared toward corporate types. You should check out Lewis’s site, where she has a number of tools and free giveaways.

One of the downloads from her site is 100 “Seven Minute” Ideas for Work. These are things you can accomplish in around seven minutes. Among my favorites (adapted for artists):

• Practice to perfect your “elevator pitch” for yourself. (I call this your 10-second introduction. If it really is 10 seconds, you can practice it 42 times in 7 minutes!)
• Contact a favorite patron and ask why they like your art so much.
• Dispose of clutter in your office and studio.
• Organize or input your newly collected business cards.
• Send a handwritten note to two people.
• Listen to seven minutes of an audio book or podcast in the car or in your office. (The Art Marketing Action podcast is always under 7 minutes.)
• Write in your daily journal any hope, challenge, risk, fear, struggle or joy that you are facing and what you have learned.
• Throw away old, non-working pens, markers, and pencils.
• Dust your computer monitor.
• Clean out one drawer of your office desk.
• Stretch your body to revive yourself.
• Create a spreadsheet of tasks you perform weekly so you can systematize your work. (I want to hear from all artists who do this one!)
• Dust pictures and artwork.
• Rearrange your office or studio. (I don’t know about you, but this would take me a lot longer than 7 minutes.)
• Read 10 pages of any book. (This is one of my favorites. Anyone can read 10 pages a day. Pretty soon, you’ll have read an entire library.)
• Place a number of business cards in your wallet/purse so they are always handy.

More 7-minute ideas just for artists are coming up tomorrow.