The Secret
Your organization is a mess. You have no system. You’re always behind. You don’t know what’s next. You’re winging it every day. I think I can help!
This week I wanted to share some good tips on how to be extremely organized as an illustrator or creative. I made a full video about it where I share my secrets and habits. The other thing for this week is pricing your work and some cool things coming soon.
Menu for today:
How to mange 8+ project at the same time
How to price your work with Quotter.app
What I’m working on next
Finally I delivered!
I just uploaded the video about organization. It was quite a ride. You guys have been asking for it since before October 2024. I filmed it in March this year, only to sit down to edit the footage in April and realize that half of the video had recorded with no audio… I spent the entire month of May in Spain, and that’s where I re-filmed the missing pieces and glued it all together. Uff!
In this video I take you behind the scenes of my freelance routine. While we move through a slower workday together, I share how I stay on top of multiple creative projects, juggle deadlines, and keep my workspace (and brain) organized. Expect real talk on boundaries, creative flow, and the small habits that keep everything running. Whether you're a fellow artist or just curious how freelancers stay afloat, there’s something in here for you ︎
I talk about how to manage your time when you’re balancing several clients at once, how to track your progress without losing your mind, how knowing your own rhythm can completely change the way you plan your day and what I do during those in-between moments when client work slows down.
It’s part pep talk, part practical guide, all wrapped in the everyday messiness of freelance life. So grab a drink, settle in, and let’s spend the day together. Don’t forget to tell me if it helped - I’m reading you in the comments here and directly under the video :)
A helpful otter
Now, pricing your work is something you struggle with I made a few videos about this. And I know it for a fact, because you guys told me. On various occasions.
So today I want to share a tool called Quotter.app - it’s an otter that quotes for you. Pricing your work has never been cuter! It’s still in beta, so any feedback or thoughts you might have will be super appreciated, so that the Otter - I mean, Quotter - can make better suggestions for you.
Quotter.app can guide you and suggest how you should price your work based on the description of the project you feed it and the work involved. You share the scope of the project, as many details as you can, and Quotter.app will give you some pricing suggestions.
I tested it a few times using my past projects as reference and it worked pretty close to what I charged. You can try it, using the free version. It’s by no means perfect, as it’s mainly intended as a guide, and it considers international pricing (EU/US).
So give Quotter a go and let me know what you think. I’m reading you!
Please, regardless of the tool, always do your own research. You can always grab the Graphic Artists Guild Handbook to compare, for example.
Disclaimer: this pricing guide tool is for educational purposes and created to promote market transparency. This is not financial or business advice. Please conduct your own research and consider your specific circumstances before making pricing decisions. Pricing models are estimates based on industry standards and may vary.
All the things to come
Officially, I now have more YouTube footage than spare time on my hands. And more ideas for new videos than hours in a day. This is what happens when you spend some time in a sunny place - with each sunbeam, a new idea is born.
Right now, I’m staring at four hours of footage from the past month - and that’s just from one camera (I have two more). With my current workload, I’ve become even more mindful of how I spend my hours, as if every minute was a coin to be invested in some weird invisible stock market.
I don’t think I mentioned it, but I spent the entire last month in Spain, indulging in all the food and sunshine. It was the longest I’ve been away from Amsterdam since I moved here, and I really needed to reset and just breathe some different air.
I got back on Monday (exactly five days ago as I’m posting this) and even though it already feels like it was over a year ago, it really helped. Honestly, leaving your environment for an extended period at least once a year, should be doctor-prescribed and government-funded.
In May, I cut back my work hours to give myself some breathing room. I wrapped up a few projects in Barcelona, including some I’d been working on for over a year. Now, I’m finishing up a few more here in Amsterdam while starting two new ones. I’m being extra intentional about the projects I take on now, to take care of both my professional practice and my mental health - more on that in upcoming videos.
One exciting update: I finally have more time to work on ⋆｡°✩ My Own Illustrated Book Series ⋆｡°✩! I will be publishing in just a few months, and I can’t wait to share it with you - sneak peeks, process clips, illustrations, everything. I hope you’ll be at least half as excited about it as I am :)
Anyway, make sure to follow me on YouTube and IG for everything that’s coming! Talk to you soon! ❥ Asia