
How I Shape My Day as an Artist
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Ever wonder what a typical day in the life of an artist looks like?
Spoiler alert: it’s equal parts chill and chaos. Focus and deep breaths.
But let’s be real: most days, it’s more about balancing coffee mugs, to-do lists and steady dose of determination.
Let me give you a glimpse of how it actually looks behind the scenes.
Weekday Mornings
I'm not a morning person, let's get that out right away... I'm that person who should own a coffee mug that tells you when it's okay to speak.
Wake me up at 7 AM and I'm not happy. Sometimes you have to do it but generally just no. 5 AM? I'll kill you at least in my mind.
I need my mornings late and slow.
Typically I get up around 9-10 AM.
Wash my face and teeth, lather up moisturizers and other skincare. Get somewhat dressed up altho in the mornings it's usually something comfy.
Then it's time for the most crucial task of the day: brewing my morning coffee. And choosing the right coffee mug (which is 99,9999% a Moomin mug but... which one?).
While I sip my coffee and have breakfast I tend to:
- Watch some inspirational YouTube video (usually about mindset)
- Do my first journaling for the day
These have made a significant change to both my general well-being but also how I work and structure my days.

Starting the day by being fully present, acknowledging how I'm feeling, getting in the right energy and defining also my goals for the day shuts down all that empty hustle and let you focus on what's actually important.
Workday
These differ so much but most days I take what's left from my coffee and open my computer.
First thing is I check my emails. Nothing special here, I think we all do that.
If there's something that requires my immediate attention, I'll do that first.
What happens next depends what my daily goals and tasks are.
It can be anything from
- Going through raw photos, making decisions which ones are potential and deleting what doesn't make the cut
- Editing photos (and there's always photos in different stages; from getting started to finessing almost ready ones)
- Website maintenance (which includes adding new products to writing blog posts like this all the way to technical stuff)
- Marketing. Very important part of my job and almost a daily thing. This can mean being present in SoMe, planning and writing posts (SoMe, blog and newsletter), having discussions about potential exhibitions, setting and managing online ad campaings... What's on my table each day relies to my goals that I set up in the morning.
- Visiting my print house Dialab (mostly signing certificates and limited edition prints but sometimes I'll fetch prints for myself (exhibitions, portfolio, test prints before adding new pieces...))
Wait... no photographing? What? Isn't that your job?
Yes, it is.
But the funny thing is that being a photographer is actually maybe... 20% of actually taking photos and 80% of everything else.
For me this is very seasonal: summer time I'll shoot almost daily. That is the time when I collect as much material as I can. I don't edit much, I'll just go through what I have and do some prep work.
When in winter, most of my work is editing, marketing and maintenance. I'll take some photos but mostly my trusty Canon can rest and I enjoy nature as it is, by myself.
Of course there are some special days, like taking longer trips or setting up exhibitions (I'll write a post about those later!).
How long my workdays are depends of the day. It can be anything from 4 to 10 hours (or more...). Usually I try to keep them between 5 to 6 and focus on things that matter instead of "doing a lot" (aka hustling and multitasking while nothing's actually achieved).
After work
I always end my days with some sort of exercise. Whether it's walk outdoors, pilates, yoga or fun cardio/dance workouts from YouTube, I'll always do something. Even when I don't really feel like it (then it's the walk).
As I work from home, I need something that resets my overly active brain.
Plus most of my work is very static so my body really needs that movement.
Then it's dinner, basic home stuff and chilling.
Evenings
I have two things I do every evening before bed:
- Journaling (how the day went, did I meet the goals, what thoughts I have running in my head, did I counter some old limiting beliefs...)
- Evening yoga (I love Yoga with Adriene)
I have a hard time to relax and slowing down. Especially my mind, I'm one of those night thinkers. These two things are so vital to my rest.
After these, I watch the news (actually... I should change the order... news these days...), make a cup of chamomile tea, have my evening porridge and watch some easy TV-shows (Golden Girls, Frasier, Addams Family (the original, black and white one!)...).
And play with my cat Lara! Who by the way also does yoga with me before her evening meal. Most days she's actually on the mat before me, waiting when we start.

Then it's evening wash and skincare and heading to bed with a book.
Nighty night!