One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced over the years of owning a business is time management. Day to day I wear so many hats that often I end the day after working as fast and hard as I can still feeling like I didn’t accomplish anything. Sound familiar? I’ve found a system of having three lists going helps me stay focused and on track week to week and day to day. I’m not always perfect and I don’t always stick to the plan, but when I do it makes a huge difference. I’m a pen and paper girl, but there are tons of apps to accomplish this as well.
Before we start talking about the list I’d love for you to answer these questions… like pull out a paper and take some time to think about these questions:
- How many hours do you want or need to work?
- Is it possible for you to complete the work in the amount of time from the previous question?
- If yes, awesome! If no, what can you outsource so your workload is attainable?
- What new/exciting thing would you like to work on now or in the future?
LIST ONE: Master list of outstanding projects
My first list is a master list of outstanding projects that have a due date; shoots to be edited, albums to design, prints to be ordered, call so and so back etc. This list has everything listed out and a due date next to it… pro tip, put the due date a few days ahead of when it’s actually due so that if you’re running a little behind, you’re still right on time! This list is strictly to keep a record of tasks that must be completed. I know, pretty straight forward, keep reading love, I promise it gets more complex!
LIST TWO: Daily calendar
The second list is a daily calendar that lists out M-F with individual days. (The one I’m currently using is from the dollar bins at Target… love me some dollar bins!) Each Friday I map out the next week on the daily calendar with small tasks that get me to the finish line on my outstanding projects. For example if I have a wedding I’m working on, the small tasks would like this: sort files, cull files, edit two folders, retouch two folders, blog, design album, upload files, etc. So depending on the amount of hours I have available each day to work, I assign various tasks to each day. Many times that looks like working on multiple projects at once so that I can maximize my time at the computer. For instance, if one project is uploading, I’ll cull the next. Having everything sorted out by days helps me not get to Friday and wonder what happened. If I’m getting behind during the week, I can plainly see it on this list. I also like being able to have small tasks to complete and being able to marks those off as I go. There’s something about dragging that highlighter over the paper that makes my heart happy!!
LIST THREE: Dreaming/Business development list
This last list is my personal favorite. I have notebook where I jot down ideas I have, product lines I want to create, or systems I want to impliment. This is the notebook I keep out when I’m listening to podcast or when I have a full list of ideas pop in my head at 3 AM. Am I the only one that happens to!? When I’m brainstorming ideas for content it goes here and when I’m dreaming those ‘one day’ day dreams, it goes here. I write quotes and little reminders to myself. This list is what I call the ‘magic list’. Here’s the thing though, too often I fill this notebook up and never have time to get to any of it. I have all of these ideas and no time to execute them. This is where it becomes important for you to have list one and two … so that you make time for list three. I’ll talk more in another post about how I make space to complete tasks on this list, it’s the easiest one to forget about.
These list are the biggest tools I use for time management but I have several other ways to maximize my work time as well. I’m a mom of two little boys (3&4) so that’s my motivation to make the most out of my work hours so that I can make as much space for them as possible. You only get 18 years and I’m determined to be as responsible as I can with the time I have with them.
Am I doing it perfectly? Of course not. I’ve ranged every where from workaholic to not wanting to work at all over the years, espeically since they were born. So darling, I just want to encourage you to impliment something today, just one thing to start heading in the right direction. As my husband often reminds me, Rome wasn’t built in a day!
Have ideas or questions!? Share them in the comments or hop on over to the Click Sisters Facebook Community. I’d love to hear from you!
