The Creative Entrepreneur’s Guide to Time Management

Balancing Artistry with Business Success

As a creative entrepreneur, you’re not just an artist, you’re also a business owner, marketer, accountant, sales person administrator and visionary all rolled into one. And, if you’re anything like my coaching clients, it’s likely you often feel torn between nurturing your creative spirit and managing the practical demands of running a business, including time management. 

So, today I want to explore how to master this balance of time management without sacrificing your creative essence. 

The Creative’s Time Management Dillema

The truth is creative work needs both structure and flexibility. It’s a difficult balance and a paradox many of us struggle with (me included). You need unstructured time to allow inspiration to flow and to break from the rigidity, yet your business demands consistent time spent on building and outputting work on reliable schedules. 

Throughout my years as a creative professional, it’s a problem I’ve struggled with and found difficult to balance. I’ve also discovered more recently that most successful entrepreneurs don’t fight this balance they embrace it.

So, let’s look at how to balance things and make things easier to be both business owner and creative without feeling like you’re at war with yourself all the time.

Strategic Time Blocking for Creative Success 

1. Set out when your peak creative hours are by:

• Tracking your energy levels and creative flow for a week 
• Identifying when you naturally feel most inspired

Once you’ve found your best times and most creative energy levels, protect these hours fiercely as core creative work time (whatever this creative work might be and, like I always say, it doesn’t have to be art or writing). 

2. Create sacred space for business tasks by:

• Mapping out specific times for administration and accounts work
• Batch similar tasks together, things like email marketing and social media, etc

Then try time blocking tasks into batches of 90 minutes for deep focus work and to allow time for you to get things finished. I like batching in two-hour blocks, but 90 minutes is a good length too. 

3. Build in time management buffers by:

• Allowing transition time between creative and business tasks, which could be as simple as making a cuppa
• Including short breaks for mental rest times and to recharge before diving into deep work 

Then make sure you have an idea of what you will do when challenges and opportunities come up suddenly and you need to adjust. These things happen to everyone and being aware that they do and not beating yourself up over them is a huge step towards learning to balance. 

The Power of Creative Habits

Establishing creative habits can help signal to your brain when it’s time to shift gears and make things easier, and let’s face it making things easier is always a win. For instance, I start my mornings with book writing, then transition into coaching sessions and business development in the afternoon. This routine works for me because it makes the most of my creative energy levels and flow. 

Practical Time Management Tools for the Creative Mind 

While creativity often rebels against rigid systems, causing a feeling of being at war with yourself, having the right tools and systems for you can actually free up mental space for more creative thinking. Some tools to try to help you include: 

• Project management tools with creative elements to work with your creative tendencies. I love Trello as it allows me to add in visuals, colour code things, connect different boards, etc, but there are other good systems too, including Monday and Asana. 
  
• Time tracking apps to help you understand your patterns and where you’re spending your time. I find this really useful to see how long things actually take, which is usually more than I anticipate. This then helps me plan in the future. For this I use Clockify and it’s a great system that, again, I can see in colour coded blocks where I’ve spent my time. They even allow you to add in lots of info and whether tasks are revenue generating or not.
   
• Calendar blocking for protected creative time to make sure you don’t drop off your creative work in favour of something else. This is particularly important for those times when the creative task is being difficult and things are a struggle. 

Balancing Spontaneity with Structure 

Remember, the goal isn’t to squeeze creativity into a timesheet. Instead, think of time management as creating a supportive framework for your creative spirit to thrive while making sure your business grows sustainably. 

Tips for maintaining your balance:

• Make time for regular creative ‘fun’ sessions 
• Set boundaries around client work time 
• Build in flexibility for creative inspiration 
• Review and adjust your schedule every month to incorporate any new lessons you’ve learned about yourself 

When Time Management doesn’t go as Planned… 

It’s a fact of life that sometimes things don’t work out and creativity just won’t show up for you when you want it to (See my article on blocks to help with this) and that’s okay. It’s important we allow this and don’t expect miracles from ourselves. Instead, be flexible and allow flexibility in your plan and have backup tasks ready for when the muse takes a holiday. 

Your Next Steps – Let’s Take Action 

1. Track your current time use for one week and see what patterns it tells you about where your time is going and when you’re most productive
2. Identify your peak creative hours and map your schedule around this 
3. Create a flexible schedule that honours both your creative and business needs so both sides are being fulfilled 
4. Test and adjust until you find your rhythm. It won’t happen instantly. It took me a long time to find mine, persevere and don’t give up. 

Ready to dive deeper into creative business development? Join in the conversation over on my Substack newsletter Creativity and Creative Expression, where we explore these themes in detail. Every week I share insights, strategies and real-world examples of creative entrepreneurs successfully balancing their artistic passion with business acumen. 

If you need personalised guidance, my creative business transformational coaching helps entrepreneurs develop sustainable systems that support both artistic vision and business growth. Book a free 20 minute breakthrough session to get started. 

Ready to transform your daily schedule, download my daily diary and affirmation journal free when you subscribe to my Substack. I use it every day and have shared it because it’s too good to keep to myself.