#FemaleFilmmakerFriday – Productivity Tips for Artists

Hello! Welcome back to another Female Filmmaker Friday where we talk about The Industry. My name is Kate Hackett and I’m an actor/writer/producer here in LA. If you are new, please consider becoming a Patron! Today’s topic is actually a question FROM a patron, so thank you George, for asking how I get work done — even when I’m not motivated!

We’re going to chat about FIVE top productivity tips for artists. These are things I personally do pretty much every day. I’ve found that a LOT of “be productive!” videos on YouTube are functionally useless for someone who has to have complete flexibility at the drop of a hat.

  1. Bullet Journal / Weekly Plan –> but as an actor, don’t lock yourself in. You are at the whim of more than just you! If you have an audition, you need to make sure your whole week isn’t thrown off.
  2. Figure out YOUR prime creative time and work with it. If you aren’t a 5am gal, don’t force yourself to get up to be “productive” at 5am. If you like working on weekends, work on weekends. Figure out what is best for you and plan around that as much as you can. If you are productive at night, try not to work as a server or bartender for your day job — that kind of thing.
  3. Set time frames -> if there’s a passage that’s just crushing you or a script you’re struggling with, put a timer on for 20 minutes and just work on it for those 20. If you’re still not in a zone at the end, pick up something else. If you’re finding your groove, stick with it!
  4. Get it out of the way/ Hard stuff first -> If your goal is go to the gym three times a week, sometimes it’s a damn good idea to go Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday because you don’t know if Thursday is going to suddenly have an audition that wrecks your day. So get it done when you KNOW you’re free because you might not be able to later! This goes for any task that needs doing: for writing, I don’t have the luxury of procrastinating until a deadline so I make sure it’s finished BEFORE it’s due. (old hangover from NERD SCHOOL TIME).
  5. And my final tip… Stockpile. Take a day and use it for things like planning out your social media posts for a month, shoot ALL your YouTube videos for a few weeks, write ALL your thank you cards in a lump and fill them in as you need. That way, it’s so, so much easier when stuff rolls around and life hits you: you don’t have to worry about minutae, it’s already prepared.

What about you? how do you stay productive?

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