I was reading an article about work capacity. It’s a physics
concept that I haven’t thought much about since I was in high school but it’s
one of those great concepts that really can apply to so much more than just
physics. The article that I was reading was about working out and being able to
more than the next person when you need to but I was thinking how can I apply
that concept to art, because really it doesn’t matter too much to me if I can’t
relate it to art.

So I got to thinking what can I do to increase my work (art)
capacity. I came up with 4 items to do so. For the next 4 weeks I’m going to
post a new work(art) capacity item.

#2 Compartmentalize.

Psychology tells us this is bad, factories tell us this is
good and efficient. The main thing to
ask yourself with this section is how can you break your process up? Can you break it into steps? For instance with book biding I cut my paper, fold my paper,
make covers, create spine designs, punch holes and sew. So there are a lot of
places where I can take my process and break it up into pieces and do all of it
at once. For instance, I’m able to cut a lot of paper at once and then fold it
to the number of sheets I need in an evening. The next evening I’ll make
covers. When I work on books I usually have 2 or 3 custom orders going and a
dozen or so getting ready for etsy. I save a lot of time by not pick up between
steps.

These are simple examples of things I do to
increase my work capacity so I can make more books.

Next Week: Organize