How to Use that Fine Arts Calendar to Be More Creative and Productive

Traditionally, calendars have always been a great way to track events and happenings in your year. They're a great way to remember birthdays, deadlines, school events, and important meetings.

However, these days, physical calendars are slowly being replaced by digital ones. Which begs the question, "Is there still a place for physical calendars like these fine arts calendars featuring some prominent artworks from famous artists?"

The short answer is, "Yes!"

Calendars as Productivity & Creativity Tools

Used the right way, a physical calendar can serve as excellent productivity tools to help you boost your productivity professionally, or cultivate your inner creativity.

For many, the primary way that they organize their workweek is usually through a task list or project manager. At the start of each week or day, they simply go through their checklist of things to do, knocking off each item one at a time.

For many other professionals, though, they optimize their time and energy by organizing their calendars in such a way that it allows them to be even more productive than if they were to simply follow a list of to-do's.

So if you've been staring at that one of our calendars for a while now, wondering whether you should buy it or not, we'd say, "Go for it!" Because down below we'll teach you exactly how you can use these fine arts calendars to improve your lifestyle and productivity.

1. Map Out Your Entire Week

One thing that many of us fail to do is plan our week ahead. More often than not, we simply take things as they come, without any real agency or proactiveness with regards to how we spend our time.

The problem with this setup is that it leaves us vulnerable to other people's plans, as well as unwanted distractions. When we fail to plan ahead (both in terms of our professional career or our creative pursuits), we often end up simply riding the waves without any clear destination. This is the stuff that derails most artists from pursuing their dreams.

In her book, The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron talks about scheduling a weekly artists date with yourself. This is so that you can continue to cultivate inspiration and creativity within. An Artist Date could be something as simple as a trip to the museum or gallery, a walk in the park, or an afternoon at a hip cafe.

Generally speaking, it's something you can do to keep that creative spirit alive within you. So on that fine arts calendar you have on your wall, mark out days when you promise to take yourself on that artist date. Your inner muse will be all the more cooperative with you for it.

2. List Your Daily Big Three

One good way to use a calendar is to list down your daily big three.

What are the daily big three?

Productivity expert and author of the books Free to Focus and Your Best Year Ever, Michael Hyatt, introduces this concept in his Full Focus Planner. He explains that most people will only really have enough focus and energy to accomplish three big things each day. Therefore, it's important to make sure that those big three are tasks that will move the needle closer to your goals.

As you start planning out your week, ask yourself, what are some goals you have as an artist, or as a professional? What will help you move a step closer towards your goals?

Now list them down on that fine arts calendar and make sure to review your calendar each and every day to remind yourself what your priorities are for that day. If nothing else, make sure that you're at least able to accomplish your daily big three.

3. Use it to Form New Habits

One of the best comedians of all time, Jerry Seinfeld, had an interview with Brad Isaac on Lifehacker. In this interview, Isaac asked Jerry if he had any tips for young comics. Isaac then begins to describe his exchange:

“He said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day.”

The way that Jerry Seinfeld did this back in the day was that he'd get a big wall calendar and hang it on a prominent wall. Next, he'd take out a big red marker and then mark each day that he was able to accomplish his writing with a big red X.

Over time, these X's created a chain that gave you that little dopamine spike every time you saw it. It encouraged him to keep on writing everyday, to not break the chain. This is how Jerry went on to win award after award as a comic, by writing a joke every single day.

Similarly, in more recent years, others have used the concept of creating a daily habit out of their creative practice to get better at their craft. Annual events like National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and Inktober are good examples of these moments when artists and creatives decide: "This month, I'll be marking X's over each day that I'm able to practice my craft."

For this reason, a nice big fine arts calendar can best serve that purpose.

Nothing Cultivates Inspiration Better than a Fine Arts Calendar

In the right hands, calendars (whether physical or digital) can become extremely powerful tools. All it takes is knowing the best way to use and utilize them to help you achieve top performance.

If you're looking for a gorgeous wall calendar, then, that will not only help you work towards your creative and professional goals, but also inspire you to chase after and embody the spirits of some of the world's most exceptional artists, you may want to consider checking out some of our fine arts calendars here on our website.

With art from great Impressionists like Monet and Degas, to the Mother of American modernism, Georgia O'Keeffe, we've got an assortment of fine arts calendars that are sure to give rise to that spring of creativity deep within your soul. Simply visit our store here on our website to check out the calendars that we have available and in stock.