Or, the Curious Connection Between Laziness and Efficiency

Reading Under a Tree by Amy Crook

In my experience, there are two general types of lazy people. There’s the people that will do anything to get out of working, often expending enormous effort to avoid expending a modest effort on actual work; and then there’s people like me who just do it once, do it right, and get it over with.

Of course, it’s lazy to pigeonhole people like this, but it also sort of proves my point. There’s also many un-lazy types who work diligently but with varying levels of accuracy, for instance, but I’m not really talking about those people.

I’m talking about lazy people.

Here’s the secret that people like me have figured out:

You don’t have to work 17 hours a day if you’re really efficient for the first few hours.

If I make a list and sit down and just get started, and I pay enough attention to what I’m doing that I don’t make (ideally, any) mistakes, then by the time that mid-afternoon lull hits, I’m done.

I can kick off and read a book, watch a few hours of television, play some pointless Facebook games, and appreciate someone else’s hard work and creativity for a while. Or I can spontaneously declare extra weekend days when I’m not feeling it, knowing that I can catch up in a couple of hours the next day. I can let creative ideas lie fallow for a few days, bubbling and brewing until they’re ready to be poured into the best possible work I can do.

And sometimes, when something unexpected comes up, I can pull out all the stops, find my well-filled reserves of energy, and work that one really long day without going crazy.

I’ve got enough expertise and experience that I can charge enough per hour, job or painting to pay the bills on just a few hours of work a day.

I’m just that efficient. And lazy.

In a completely non-metaphorical way.

I’ve been doing a lot of decluttering the past few years, wave after wave of getting rid of the things that don’t really help me anymore (or never did). I’ve culled through my books (a little), my toys (a lot), my collectibles and tools and even my art. I made a pile of stuff I just didn’t like, wasn’t happy with, or wasn’t sure anyone else would ever like.

The art was all works on paper, prints and watercolors that didn’t quite do it for me. I’ve been recycling them into Etsy packaging for larger sales, for the most part, though so far I haven’t actually destroyed anything I didn’t really dislike. In fact, I’ve even rescued a few pieces from the pile over the time it’s been there, and one of them was this Mermaid.

If you look at the page there, you can see how it’s marked “sold.” In fact, it sold the same day I posted it, and I’ve had several compliments on it aside from that.

I got $400 for a piece of art I nearly shredded into ribbons or turned into an origami box.

What’s the moral of this story? Well, first off, that everyone is their own worst critic. And even if you think you know what people want, maybe you just know what you think you’d want.

It cost me nothing but a little time and effort to scan the piece and post it as a daily art post, something I needed pieces to fill up anyway (I’ve still got a big pile of finished work, but eventually I will run out, which has motivated me to start working on some new stuff). That, and the storage space for it and the other pile of maybe-art I’ve got sitting on a tray on top of my refrigerator at the moment.

I know that I “declutter” my ideas list just as often as I do my house, abandoning things that seem half-baked, or don’t quite fit my idea of what’s awesome. The problem, of course, is that I’m not actually my target audience — I only have so much wall space, and a lot of it is covered by bookshelves. A lot. So now I’ve been making an effort to doodle more, to post little sketches and see what resonates with my audience before I totally ditch an idea.

What are you getting ready to toss that someone else might love?

I thought my Not Dead Yet people might like to know how the Big Art Sale went, and also just get up to date with the Land of Amy.

So, to get you up to date:

• My 72-year-old Mom is getting married! She is having a very hard time picking a date. It was going to be in September, then July, then May 21, and now it’s in late June.
• I held a Big Art Sale when I suddenly realized May 21 was about 3 weeks away and I still didn’t have plane tickets. I sold some art! One commission, one painting, one Cartoon and a website banner. Enough to pay for the trip, in a completely awesome manner.
• The late June date is really really final, and plane tickets have been bought. Soon, I’ll be flying 2000 miles to go visit my family.
• To thank the people who bought or commissioned art, I posted some free wallpapers. Feel free to suggest different pieces if there’s something you’d like to see as your computer or iPhone background.
• I’ve also been posting Daily Art over at Antemortem Arts, only some of which is for sale. Doodles and paintings, sculpture and miscellany, once a day! It keeps me on my toes.
• As a result, I’ve been making more art! And getting more illustration clients, as well. So expect some changes around here to show off the shift in my business model from design to illustration, and the place where the two meet.
• Be a Cartoon is still going strong as my favorite new thing that I’ve added this year! I am wembling about whether or not to keep the Draw Your Monster version as a permanent item, especially now that the Monster Coloring Book is out; I’m on the home stretch for Monster #2 of my original 3 clients, and they’re just so much fun. Thoughts?

Thank you to everyone who bought some stuff!