Sometimes it can be hard to feel motivated or inspired enough to create when you are supposed to be doing just that. You can’t seem to find the right spark, and you surely aren’t able to complete the project in time. Artists can be organized, but it will take some effort on your part. The Engage Art Contest is not something that you will succeed in if you just spend five minutes creating a piece of art, filming a video, or rehearsing some lyrics. It’s going to take some time, like all good contests and challenges do. We want you to have something spectacular entered by the end of the contest just as much as you do. We are interested in your success! Here are some tips we have found helpful in staying organized as an artist.

One of quickest things that happens to artists is their studio or space to create becomes a mess. Paint everywhere, cords stretched across every free inch and crumbled notes filled to the brim with ideas thrown all over. It can be easy to mentally push all these things out of view when you are creating, but ideally, if you can clean and organize your creative space, it gives yourself an area to be free and produce.

Set a schedule for yourself. I can hear you now: “But I don’t know when I’ll be creative!” We get it. Make time for spontaneity and for when the moment hits you just perfectly, but the reality is the most projects that function on this “wait and see what happens” approach never see the light of day. If you work routinely on your project, with enough revisions and edits, you’ll have tapped into something just as creative and striking as the other approach. Work on your project when that spontaneous moment occurs, but don’t require spontaneity to do any work at all.

But don’t get too bogged down. There’s a balance here if you have not noticed by now. Don’t have a lack of a schedule, but don’t have too much of a schedule. If you commit yourself to working on one project for eight hours a day, every day, you’ll be burnt out halfway through the process. Make a schedule you know that you can keep and one that also gives you time to experience life and receive inspiration from other resources.

Speaking of experiencing life, do that. Part of staying organized as an artist is inspiring yourself and motivating yourself by looking at other creatives and their works. This will help you stay in an inspired mindset, while also giving yourself a much-needed break from your project. Visit museums, go to a different part of town, watch a documentary, read books and articles like these! If you want my honest opinion, nothing inspires me more than watching a film about creative people. By the end, I am so ready to make something that I might even work longer than my allotted schedule that day.

That is the goal. By keeping an organized space, setting a schedule, experiencing life, and taking in motivating content, you’ll find yourself being a more organized artist who’s ready to conquer The Engage Art Contest. We are so excited for what our readers will enter into the Carolinas portion of our contest. Remember that it concludes on September 30, 2018 so stay on track with your project! For more inspiring articles and scriptural nourishment, follow Engage Art on social media and visit our website.