Here is a new year routine for artists, to get you on track for this new year. As an artist, it is important to establish a successful new year or routine, and to stick to it! There is a lot that goes into establishing a new year routine for artists that sticks, so let's dive into it!
New Year Routine for Artists
What is a New Year Routine?
A new year routine is a set of habits or practices that people often adopt at the beginning of the year to promote personal growth, productivity, or well-being. Having a new year routine as an artist is a great way to ensure that you are caught accomplishing the goals that you set out for yourself at the beginning of the year.
Why You Should Make a New Year Routine?
These routines help set the tone for the rest of the year, creating a fresh start. A good new year routine often includes a mix of self-reflection, goal-setting, and new habits.
I have a lot of big goals this year for 2025 and one of these goals is really matching my teaching salary income with my art business so having revenue goals is a very top priority for me this year.
In order to hit my revenue goals as an artist I need to really establish a new year routine and find a routine that I can consistently stick to. The key word is consistency. It is really important to consistently stick to the new year routine that you create or yourself as an artist.
Here are some ideas of what you might put into your new year routine as an artist:
Creating art in the studio on a weekly or daily basis
Cleaning your studio every week
Sending an email to your newsletter every week
Applying to one exhibition or art call every single week
Applying to artist grants on a quarterly basis, read more about artist grants by clicking here
Apply to an artist residency, once a year, learn more about artist, residencies, clicking here
Selling your art at an art market
Try licensing, your art, or doing wholesale
Get your art into a local shop or boutique
Create a print on demand store for your artwork
Make stickers, greeting cards or calendars with your art
Post on social media on a daily basis
Try paid ads to grow your audience
Take a class, or do some research to improve your techniques and skills as an artist
Take a business or entrepreneur type course to learn more about the business admin side of being an artist
How to Create a New Year Routine
Now that you have some ideas for what you might want to create in your new year routine as an artist, you need to think about how exactly you are going to create this new year routine.
Reflect on the Past Year
It's really important to reflect on the past year that you had as an artist. Sometimes it might be hard to remember everything that happened in the year so take a look on your website. Take a look through emails, your social media as well as your CV, to remember everything that happened. You might be forgetting different exhibitions or art opportunities that happened throughout this year.
Journaling: Write down highlights, challenges, and lessons from the past year.
Gratitude Practice: Reflect on what you're grateful for.
Achievements Review: List personal and professional accomplishments.
So for me, I had a few art exhibitions, I also had an arts commission, I made some new works with a cyanotype technique that I wanted to try, I applied to a couple of artist grants, and I got into a small business mentorship program.
I am happy with what happened during this past year, but also based on my different accomplishments, I know now that I want even more of these accomplishments and art opportunities.
So now that I know that I want more of these are opportunities I have to figure out and make a plan of. How am I going to achieve this and how am I going to make this happen?
That brings us to our next step in the process of creating a new year routine for artists.
2. Goal-Setting for the New Year
SMART Goals: Set Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals.
Vision Board: Create a visual representation of what you want to achieve.
Break Down Goals: Plan steps for each goal and set timelines.
It's good to begin thinking about what are your goals for this year and try to create smart goals where you are being as specific and precise as possible the more detail the better!
Once you have your goals, you can also think about your future vision think about the ideal scenario what is the best option you don't want to create goals that are too small where are you limit yourself you want to really dream bag and cast a vision for what you want your future as an artist to look like.
Once you have your goals and vision outlined, then you can break down your goals into smaller chunks. I like to do this on a quarterly basis so I think about the first three months of the year, and then the next three months, and the next three months, and the next three months and I figure out what am I going to do? What goals am I specifically working on, what steps am I taking during each and every quarter of the year.
It is important to review your goals every single quarter if not every single month, every single week, every single day. The more that you review your goals, the more successful you are going to be at achieving your goals and making your dreams become a reality.
3. Adopt New Habits
It's important to think about your schedule and your commitments whether you have a child or a part-time job possibly. Think about the time that you have in your day to establish new habit these habits are often left to when you have the time but what happens is you usually don't have the time and then that affects your overall health which can make you sick or tired lacking energy and then you're not having the energy to work on your art or to move your business as an artist forward. So it's really important to prioritize your health and find ways to incorporate new healthy habits if you are not already doing these habits.
Even if you just start small, just try adding one new habit every single month you can make big progress whether that's drinking more water, planning your meals or going on hikes or walks on a daily basis. All of that adds up it helps, and it affects your overall health as an artist.
Morning Routine: Incorporate meditation, exercise, or journaling.
HealthyHabits: Focus on nutrition and balanced meals, drinking more water, commit to a regular fitness routine.
Mindfulness/Relaxation: Practice mindfulness or meditation to manage stress.
4. Organize Your Space
This is a big one as an artist. If you were like myself, you probably has a ton of art supplies and limited storage space. You also probably have lots of artwork that you need to sell. You can click here to learn about where to store your art supplies. It's important to create storage solutions and this will help you know where everything is so that you are not wasting your time trying to find things. This will also keep your art supplies as well as your artwork in proper condition, so that they don't become damaged with mold, mildew, or end up getting broken by accident.
I like to set up my art studio in different zones by grouping together different items so I might have one shelf that is all geared towards my shipping supplies. Then I might have another desk that is my sewing station that has my sewing machine, my thread, my bobbins, all of my fabric nearby. Think about the different zones that you might have in your art studio, think about the art supplies that you work with, the type of art that you produce and try to create different zones by grouping related items together that make sense.
Decluttering: Start the year with a clean and organized home or workspace.
Digital Cleanup: Sort through emails, files, and apps to declutter your digital life.
5. Self-Care and Well-Being
Your self-care and well-being are very much related to your health and it is important to prioritize that just like you prioritize your physical health.
As an artist, when you feel like creating depends on your energy and your overall well-being. In order to feel energized, you really need to prioritize your sleep, and make sure that you were getting enough hours of sleep each night.
Being an artist can also be a lonely job where you are working in your art studio for long hours independently, so it's good to make time for social connections where you can connect with friends and family on a daily basis or a weekly basis for sure.
Prioritize Sleep: Establish a consistent and healthy sleep schedule.
Mental Health Check: Schedule time for self-care or therapy if needed.
Social Connections: Make time to connect with friends and family.
6. Financial Planning
Again it's really important to think about your revenue goals and plan out your finances I like to stick to a monthly budget every month. I keep track of all of my business and art related expenses. I also keep track of the revenue that I have made from my art every single month.
If you are not happy with your revenue goals and you're wanting to continue to grow your revenue calls, you need to start planning and thinking about. How are you going to accomplish the revenue goals that you have set out for yourself for example, if you make most of your art revenue from doing art commissions, but you're still not happy with the amount of revenue that you're making you need to figure out how are you going to attract more clients who would like to get an art commission done by you. So this could include posting on social media more frequently creating an email newsletter and sending that out more consistently. It could be running paid advertisement it could be selling our commissions on at sea as well as your own website.
Budgeting: Review your finances and create a budget for the year.
Savings Goals: Set savings targets for short and long-term goals.
7. Learning and Growth
As an artist, it is important to continue to learn and develop your skills. You can develop both your artistic skills and your business/marketing skills. Nowadays you can find a course or a YouTube video on any topic you need help with. Remember you are resourceful and you will figure it out!
Skill Development: Plan to learn a new skill or pursue a hobby.
Reading Goals: Set a goal for how many books you want to read or topics to explore.
I hope you have found this new year routine as an artist helpful feel free to connect with me on social media by following me on one of the buttons below comment on this post and share about your new year routine. What are some new habits you are going to add to your routine this year as an artist?
