Are You Becoming HABITUALLY Late?

[Tlouey]

Are you finding that you are falling into a trend of being late with your cards for swaps and PATs? Are you joining swaps and forgetting about them? Are you finishing cards, getting them ready to mail, and then letting that envelope sit on your desk for days and days? Are you finding it is becoming a pattern where you have to mail PAT cards out to everyone in your group, separately??

Perhaps we need to discuss some good ideas for ways of getting out of these tardy tendencies.



I know some people don't join swaps unless they've at least made one or two of the cards first... but do those of you who do this find you end up missing a lot of swaps that you were interested in and what about PATs?

Do you guys mark the due dates or mail-by dates on your calendars?

Do you find it is helpful if the host sends out a reminder PM a few weeks before the due date?

Do you use our To-Do list thread in the Art Discussions forum on our site?

How do you keep track of swap stuff?



:mailart:

[Amerasu]

I go through stages of lateness. Sometimes I'm early or relatively on time and sometimes I completely fall off the wagon. Staying on or falling off always seems to coincide with my work schedule. I'm a gross under-estimator of my free time, unfortunately.

Some people are just late people though. No amount of list making or reminders will necessarily help them. They are what they are. I figure if all of the cards are in within the 2 week grace period (IF the host grants one), it's all good. If the host doesn't want to grant that 2 week grace period, then that's their prerogative. It's the host's swap afterall. She or he should be clear in the swap instructions though. Do you wait or not? And then stick to it.

As for mailing cards to individual group members in PATs. It's not especially cool. It's more work for the host who has to track that everyone received cards and help get addresses, etc. I've had to mail to group members myself before and I felt lame about it. I had 3 or 4 months to make cards which is enough time for anyone. I won't make that mistake again.

Things I find MOST helpful:


A reminder PM from the host about 3-4 weeks before the swap due date with the mail to address.
Writing down swap due dates in my notebook.

[Ashazart]

Well, I have not joined any swaps, or even made any art, in quite a while because life has presented me with a few difficulties of late. But previously, I found that I fared, and felt, much better if I made my cards before officially joining a swap. In instances where it was necessary to join before completing my cards, I would set up various reminders for myself. I typically use my Yahoo calendar for personal reminders because I can set it to send me e-mail reminders when I need them.

Cynthia

[goodmorningstarshine]

I tend to join ALL the swaps. Then I make a list of all the swap due dates in chronological order. Then as soon as I finish working on one swap I immediately move to the next one on the list. When I have about 3-4 swaps ready to mail I package them up (I hate that part) and go to the post office. I usually mail very early.

But sometimes (like now) something big comes up that takes up all my art time. If there is a swap due in the current month that I haven't finished I begin to panic. I drop all the swaps that aren't PATs. I finish the PATs, then I finish whatever the big thing is and then try to rejoin the swaps I dropped. :D

[kreationkween72]

Ha, ha, is this thread a hint?
I'll be mailing my current swap stuff tomorrow or the next day...:-)
My way of keeping up with swaps is to just join one at a time.
That way all my creative energy, plus my "remembering" energy, is focused.