Being busy is boring.
I don’t mean just saying it, though that’s boring too. You know the moment: someone asks how you’re doing and before you can think, out comes “I’ve just been so busy.”
It’s a conversational dead end. Nobody knows what to do with it. Because they’re busy, too. Everyone is busy!
But the deeper problem is actually being that busy. When your entire existence as an artist has been reduced to a task list, you have no direction to report, no story to tell, no point of view on where any of it is going. Just motion.
That’s what working IN your business without ever working ON it does to you.
In this episode of The Art Biz, I talk about one of the most important distinctions in running a sustainable art business: the difference between working IN your business and working ON it.
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Executing v. Evaluating
Working IN your art business is execution. Posting to social media, responding to emails, filling out show applications, sending your newsletter. It’s necessary, and it has to happen.
But working ON your business is something different. It’s stepping back to look at the whole picture. Evaluating what’s working, weighing opportunities, asking hard questions about where you’re headed and whether your current path is still right.
Before we work together, most of my artist-clients are almost entirely in execution mode. And without ON time, there’s no filter.
Every new platform, every trend, every idea from another artist pulls at your attention, because you have no compass telling you what actually matters right now.
I also talk about the opposite problem: artists who spend too much time planning and refining, and not enough time executing. A perfect plan that never launches is just a very organized fantasy.
Questions to Ask During Your ON Time
Working ON your business doesn’t require a full-day retreat, like the ones I describe in episode 251.
It can be one protected hour a week, where you ask not What do I need to do today? but these questions:
- Is what I am doing actually working? WHY?
- Is this still where I want to go? WHY?
- What’s on my to-do list that no longer serves me?
- What has the best potential for a long-term payoff?
- Where am I playing it too safe?
Record everything in your journal for your next session.
This week, block one hour on your calendar and treat it like an appointment you won’t cancel. Step back from the doing. No tasks, no executing.
Look at the whole picture and ask: what’s working, what isn’t, and where is my attention going? Capture everything in your journal. That’s working ON your business.
Alyson Stanfield Quotes
- “Stop saying you’re busy.”
- “Execution without direction is just activity.”
- “A perfect plan that never launches is just a very organized fantasy.”
- “Without the ON time, there’s no filter.”
- “This isn’t about thinking it, it’s about inking it.” (Nod to Mark Victor Hansen.)
- “Working on your business is not about creating a perfect plan. It’s about being awake to what’s happening.”
- “ON time is where you ask: what am I willing to give up to move forward? That’s a different question than what do I need to do today?”
Related Episodes
Working ON your business allows you to plan for meaningful projects like these.
