As we all start to drown under the demands of social media it is important to consider how we spend our limited time.
Wow, I haven’t written a blog post in over a month! As a
matter of fact, I haven’t been on Google + more than two or three times in that period, have
barely glanced at Facebook, and have all but abandoned my nightly perusing of
Google Analytics. I haven’t looked at Pinterest in over a month, nor have I kept up with Tumbler. A few perfunctory tweets on twitter rounds out my social
media activities. Taking note of this, I realized that I have found a way to convert my Social Media efforts into more revenue. I am doing that by spending less time on social media and more time doing what I really love doing, making more images. Between Getty and Blend I have uploaded fifty of my
composited concept images and uploaded another 45 “accepted” images shot as
part of a joint shoot with a friend of mine. This has been the most productive
month I have ever had. So while my headline maybe be a little misleading I think it is important for those who are serious about stock photography to carefully consider how they use their time.
Cutting Down On Wasted Time
For the last several years I have been working at getting
more efficient, more disciplined and more productive. That isn’t necessarily
the same thing as spending less money on shoots because in what I do time is my
biggest constraint, not the cost of the shoot. My emphasis has been on efficient use of my time and I have found a couple ways that are really helping me in that goal.
Next Image Up
My latest technique for increasing my productivity is to
have my next image already planned before I finish the current one. I am now
spending a little time each day planning out the next image and what individual steps need to
be done towards completion of the image whether it is finding a photo from my archives, shooting a prop, or
casting models.
First Task The Next Morning
Whether I am about to begin a new image or hopefully
complete one in progress, I find it immensely helpful to plan the first task to
undertake the next morning. I can’t stress enough how important this seems to
be to jump right into a good creative/work flow each morning. Getting a good productive start in the morning seems to
almost always carry right on through for the entire day. So the last thing I do before I leave
the studio is review what I will start on first thing the next the morning.
Committing To Ideas
The other part of my increased productivity is in committing
to ideas. I always have a list of
ideas to work on, but now I commit to the next one before I finish the one I am
working on. Now it doesn’t always play out that way. I also allow myself to
jump into images that present themselves to me during the course of my work.
For example, as I peruse through my files looking for parts I need an idea will
often spring to mind. If I finish an image and it is fairly early in the day I
might then jump on such an idea and try and whip it out before starting on my
next “major” idea. But again, the important thing is that I have an image
already mapped out and ready to dive into.
Breaks, Exercise and "Off" Time
I do take occasional breaks to exercise and to surf the net. Giving myself permission for brief sorties outside my “production zone” insures that I don’t get burned out…which would really negatively affect my output! I might also add that I often take a day out of my work week to work around the house and I take several trips each year with at least one being a major one usually to some exotic destination. Giving myself plenty of "off" time keeps me at my best when I am working.
Breaks, Exercise and "Off" Time
I do take occasional breaks to exercise and to surf the net. Giving myself permission for brief sorties outside my “production zone” insures that I don’t get burned out…which would really negatively affect my output! I might also add that I often take a day out of my work week to work around the house and I take several trips each year with at least one being a major one usually to some exotic destination. Giving myself plenty of "off" time keeps me at my best when I am working.
Quality, Quantity And Consistency
A reminder here that the one trait I can see that is shared
by all the top earning stock photographers that I know is that they all are
prolific photographers. They combine quality, quantity and consistency. That is
the overriding goal I find myself working towards these days. If I can achieve that then I believe the money will take care of itself...and so far it seems to be working.
