Interruptions and How to Deal With Them

[Linda Brandon]

I meant to start this new topic yesterday but I was interrupted.

How do you deal with interruptions? Are they sometimes a good thing? Interruptions are a different issue than procrastination but can cut into your productive time just as drastically.

My own personal source of aggravation is the telephone. Caller ID will help you weed out annoying phone calls, and an answering machine will let you call people back when it's convienient for you to do so. If you listen to music and turn it up loud then you won't even hear the phone ring.

[Kimberly Dow]

I find interruptions when I am on the computer, paying bills, etc really annoying. I find myself raising my voice at the kids more often than not. But - when I am painting I am not bothered by anything. If I answer anyone it's almost a whisper. Mostly I can ignore everyone and they eventually go away. If the kids are arguing...they eventually stop. No one has been hurt yet! They run to answer the phone so I dont have to worry about that. It's a 'zen' type of state I get into when I paint - it's just so peaceful nothing bothers me. Sometimes I have hell to pay afterwards, but the family is pretty supportive and doesn't complain much if I forget something.

[Joan Breckwoldt]

I generally paint when my two children are at school, which gives me most of the day since they're 9 and 13. I don't answer the phone at all unless it's my husband calling or the kids' school. My husband doesn't usually talk more than 2 or 3 minutes when he calls from the office. The school only calls when it's an emergency. I have caller ID so I can see who it is. I still have to go into the other room though, to look at the caller ID.

My biggest challenge is to say 'no' ahead of time when a friend wants to have a long lunch or go and do something. Not to say that I never do that stuff, but it's too easy to spend a whole day piddling away time. I'm even saying 'no' to most volunteer opportunities at school. I've decided I'm a happier person and mom when I can paint during the day. I would rather spend time with my kids after school than in the classroom when there are 20 other kids around.

It would seen I don't interrupt myself enough sometimes. If I'm working on a painting it's very obvious by looking at the state of the house (!), there is usually more take out and the kids come looking for clean clothes! But I've got a very understanding husband, just like Kim.

Joan

[Michele Rushworth]

I also have two school age kids so things are more complicated when they're out for the summer. They go to day camps every other week and then I can get more done.

Even when they're home, though, they're gradually becoming better trained about what constitutes an "emergency" and when it's okay to interrupt me. I need to be more firm about not solving their problems when it's not an emergency, though.

However, as Robert Genn says in his artist's newsletter (see thread on that topic), sometimes interruptions are good for us as it keeps us and our work grounded in the real world.

During the school year I paint from 9 to 3 or 4pm when they're out of the house. Between 4 and 7pm I'm "Mom" again. After 7 I'll often do more work, though usually computer stuff (marketing, taxes, etc) since evening is not my high energy time of the day and I'm not up to painting then. This allows me to work an average of 35 hours a week. under "normal" circumstances.

[Ngaire Winwood]

Having a 14 year old son, I recently found that I am finding out that his needs from me are changing to being there for him on a constant level to now being just a taxi driver, cook, cleaner etc. With just the two of us, it is amazing how much time I need to spend as a Mother, Father, proxy annoying sister, playmate, football ref and coach, taxi as well as housekeeper, animal carer and organic gardening grower, Oh, also a student portrait artist who also as a coordinator volunteer of a community art centre and community gardening volunteer. These interruptions and more I am only just learning to organise better into my schedule each day. Having just had 3 weeks school holidays with him at home etc and with minimal drawing practice done by me, I am finding it hard to bounce back into a rhythm again. I find medical appointments, paying bills, phone calls, baking, hard to schedule into just one office day per week. I am going to chose a Thursday as office day starting next week.

As a student portrait artist, I find that I do not have enough time to read about how to do the specifics of doing quality work and the actual doing of it for gaining better skills on a consistent level. As a self-training artist with the help from the wonderful artists on this forum, just drawing anything is not beneficial enough to me, drawing with instructive purpose from knowledge gained from these readings is more useful to me with limited time available. My week is 1 day reading, 1 days drawing, 1 day painting and 1 day office day with a spare day for impromptu bits.

I keep a 10-5 work schedule so housework can be done, phone calls, load of washing done etc before start time of 10 o'clock. I usually take another 30 or more minutes to quieten down by reading instructional books with gentle background music on before being able to focus on the lesson I have planned for myself for that day.

I suppose it is a case of flexibility to some extent, without compromising a quality work schedule. Interruptions can steal a whole days schedule with the time lost making a dent into my progression that I feel cheated by afterwards.

Having read the previous artists methods, I might have to change to a more disciplined approach as after I pick my son up from school 3-3.30, I have one on one time with him until 4 o'clock or for a while and I then continue on with what I was doing before 3 o'clock but to a lesser concentration level or I use the last hour to tidy up or read. I only wish I had more energy to continue my skill development into the night.