Working at the Wellsville Creative Arts Center as the Studio/Programming Manager, I learned a lot about myself. Feeling as though the studio could always improve and that there was never a moment where nothing needed to be done, pushed me to find ways to grow the space. While this was satisfying and made me feel I was making an active difference, it also made it to where I was thinking about my job ALL THE TIME. While there were pieces of the position I really enjoyed, overall, I felt burnt out towards the end. This led me to start assessing my work/life balance, forcing me to realize I need time to rest and recharge. I’d like to share some tips that helped me move towards a better balance.
One: Create a consistent schedule. Because this position had flexible working hours, I could work different hours each week depending on what tasks needed to be completed. From the outside, this seemed like such a luxury – I could have any time off I needed! It gave me this false sense of flexibility, when I really wanted something more structured. Trying to keep this schedule as similar from week to week really helped me to get into a flow, and prioritize different responsibilities. Allowing myself some grace to pause when I needed a break or, on the flip side, work a little extra depending on the urgency of a task, I was able to repeat similar hours each week and adjust if needed. In the beginning, I did not set myself up with as much structure and would find myself getting super off task especially when 10 different things needed to be completed at once. I’d start one, get distracted, and start another without completing the first task. Of course, most of the time these tasks were not as urgent as they seemed, and the illusion of needing them all to be completed simultaneously was not only false but made me very anxious at the thought of tackling them. Instead of stopping once I ran out of energy, I’d push myself through because I felt like whatever-it-was needed to be finished right then. This led to not doing the job well and decreasing the amount of time delegated towards bringing that energy back so I could do tasks well the next day. Thus, I could complete a week’s worth of work without feeling as though the tasks matched best of my ability – very much snowballing into a huge mess that I’d need to dig myself out of later. This led to things needing to be re-done and more time spent at work, where I could have prevented this had I taken some time for myself. Throughout my time as studio manager, I came to realize this, and started to feel more confident in knowing how to manage my own time to maximize efficiency. Creating time for myself was very important and necessary and was factored into my weekly work schedule. For example, because I worked Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays were considered my days off.
Two: Keep a planner. Specifically this Lefty friendly planner. This coincides a little with my first tip, but it looks more at the big picture. Write down every date you discuss, needs people voice to you, little reminders to finish timely tasks – this helped me to complete tasks on time and not forget the voices of those around me. For example, planning an event takes time to advertise in order to positively impact attendance. This is why I planned events backwards. I always started with the date the event needed to happen. Then I marked out at least a month for advertising in my planner, which allowed me to plan when I need to start making the promotion materials (fliers, press releases, social media posts, updating website). After I could realistically set this time aside, I figured out when I needed to reach out to the artist/teacher and get the ball rolling about an event or class. By writing these dates out in my planner, I found it was less likely for me to fall behind or feel overwhelmed by a large to-do list. This way, I could see when tasks overlapped as well, and provide myself with a buffer time frame in order to stay on top of advertising. If I ever felt like I wasn’t busy enough, I looked ahead to see what I could get started on early in order to help myself in the future.
Making note of tasks people asked of me also showed I was listening to them when they voiced a concern. They see you write it down, and it physically proves to them that you’re hearing what they have to say. If Nancy wants to get a piece out of the kiln by a certain date. Marking this date in my planner helped me to follow through on my promise and ensure she had it finished on time. This kept her happy and excited to make more in the studio rather than feeling as though she cannot depend on me to follow through. Recommendations for the studio such as pouring a new top to the plaster wedging tables also were written down in my planner, giving me a better perspective of when I could realistically complete this task. If I was super swamped for the next two weeks, I could then tell the student with the recommendation that it would be a minute before I got to pouring a new table. This communication helped them understand that I was not just ignoring them. Also, writing down this task on a day I was available helped me not to double book and push it back and back and back.
Three: Turn email notifications off. This allowed me to enjoy my time off without distractions from work. Being able to see email notifications pop up made me feel like I needed to drop everything and answer. Once I realized this was my behavioral pattern, I tried taking a deep breath, clearing the notification, and going back to what I was doing before I saw the notification. This series of actions still left me thinking about that notification, wondering what it meant, and wanting to answer. This was not an effective way for me to relax because I could not stop thinking about what I had read and ignored. Being so wrapped up mentally with these notifications, I decided I should turn them off – leaving me to respond when I was clocked in and mentally ready to provide a thoughtful response. This pattern really helped me because I was no longer distracted and could recharge during my time off. Thinking more about the process of sending an email, I logically know that the person sending it does not need or even want an immediate response, but when I knew the answer to a question or felt like I could help move forward in coordinating an event by answering, this was all I could think about after seeing the notification pop up on my phone. In the beginning, I would get sucked in by these notifications, telling myself, this will take me 2 seconds to answer. Of course this never was the case, and I would often start to complete 3 different new tasks that were not originally on my radar at all. After turning the notifications off, I was no longer met with the disruption of an extra hour of work on my day off, and allowed for me to be more present when doing fun things with my friends.
Four: Listen. So much of this job required me to listen to those around me. Hearing questions and concerns helped me to address problems as well as implement more effective ways of communication. For example, I knew Christmas time would be chaotic for kiln loads considering a lot of our members were making Christmas gifts for loved ones. Because I listened to them, and knew their concerns, I was able to send out announcements telling them when the last green work week should be, the last bisque load would be loaded, and the last glaze load unloaded and ready for pickup. Stressing this timeline in November lessened procrastination and provided relief for the students worried their present wouldn’t be finished in time.
Because the heart of the operation is the community, I needed to prioritize listening to their voices. Doing this allowed for me to plan new classes they’d be interested in as well as a multitude of workshops they could learn from. Listening increased the desire for students to be in the physical studio space and it strengthened the connection I have with friends. Remembering individual details can be very difficult for me, but making the extra effort to learn more about those who surrounded me helped make my day to day job more enjoyable. Suddenly, I wasn’t grinding the kiln shelves or mopping or spending my Saturday at work because I had to, it was because I wanted to.
Five: Tell myself I’m doing all I can. By affirming to myself that this was true, it was easier for me to let some things roll off my shoulders. Whether this be criticism, missing a deadline, a misguidance of material, whatever – I was doing the best I could to complete my job well. No one ever gets everyone’s full approval nor is anyone perfect. This is where all the cliche sayings like “the grass is always greener” comes to really resonate. It’s easy to pick out the flaws or ways things could be “better”, but it provides no help to dwell on what could be or the “if I only did ___” because that simply is not the way it is right now. Sure changes can be made and implemented towards the future, but those changes normally happen with time. Having patience with myself to allow for mistakes and grow from them really made me realize that I could call their grass greener all day long, but that doesn’t mean I have failed anyone by trying my best to fertilize my side.
Overall, my main takeaway from working this type of position is that I really enjoy the aspect of building/planning community enriching events and listening to what other makers are interested in. The downside is that I have found the flexibility of this position and the amount of mental creative energy I was exerting decreased the amount of time I spent making my own artwork. This major decrease really made me feel bad about my practice because I felt as though I was making the studio the best it could be for others and then not really having the time or mental space to use it myself. In an ideal world, if I could spend half the time completing these tasks or have more of an opportunity to delegate, I could have the best of both worlds – managing events/opportunities as well as getting to partake in the fruits of my labor. While I felt a lot of gratification towards successfully organizing an event, it felt like I was never able to live in the moment because I was always thinking about the next step. With help, I feel like this balance could be describing a job I’d like to work long-term, but for now, I’m looking forward to finding a low energy exerting job in order to place more emphasis on my own making practice.
Emily Fedorchak 