Mistakes Make Magic

019: MMM – Valuing and Scheduling Your Time

November 28, 2017

I’m Catherine.
A New Orleans based wedding photographer and educator. We are excited you are here and cannot wait to connect with you!.
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Time is THE most precious thing in life, you cannot have more of it so you must use it wisely. I want you to spend just a few moments thinking about how you have been spending your time lately. When you are working, are you working hard and in a disciplined way or do you find yourself playing on your phone? When you are not working, are you present? Are you completely allowing yourself to be in that moment?

Overscheduling

One of the reasons most entrepreneurs get discouraged is overwork, overwhelm and eventually burn out. I have seen first hand how this burnout can result in someone never returning to the field they were once so passionate about. No matter how passionate you are about your craft, if you push yourself too hard you are not going to be happy.

Realistically and Properly Schedule Your Time

For some people it may take them 30 minutes to get ready in the morning, and for some, it takes 1.5 hours! At some point I started timing myself and I found that I can consistently get ready in 45 minutes. So now, when I have a meeting I schedule 45 minutes to get ready plus travel time to the meetup location. This has not only prevented me from being late but has also helped me to realistically schedule my mornings.

Tracking Your Tasks

According to TrainingIndustry.com, tracking time can lead up to an 85% increase in productivity. MyHours.com is a free time tracker for projects and tasks. Sometimes I use trackers or jot down times and other times, I will just look at the clock when I start and set a goal for the task to be complete. Example, if I am preparing images for a blog post I could easily spend hours going back and forth about which images to choose. But, if I set a goal time for the task I know I cannot waste time being indecisive and I have to make a decision and move on.

Prioritize Your Tasks

If you start with all of the fun work first it is highly unlikely that you are going to do the more difficult tasks afterward. What I have started doing lately, and am finding extremely successful, is doing the hardest work first. It is not the easiest to get started, but once I get going the positive feeling of accomplishment builds momentum and allows me to easily move on to the next task.

Create a Routine

In terms of efficiency, having a routine takes a lot of the guess work out of your day. Even if your days are not all the same, there are aspects of your days that you will repeat over and over. This could be something small like brushing your teeth or something big like going to bed at the same time, but creating a routine has been proven to increase productivity and even happiness levels.

Over Scheduling

I will be honest with you… I have officially overscheduled myself this month. I know this is something that I need to work on, so instead of telling you what to do I am going to tell you my goals and plans for correcting this moving forward.

The first thing I am planning to do next month is sit down with my accounting and really look at our budgeting. I think as an entrepreneur, there is always this looming feeling of scarcity or not having enough. Not having enough money or not having enough work. The truth is, there are real numbers that can determine how much work is necessary. About a year ago, we read the Dave Ramsey book The Complete Guide to Money. One thing that Dave talks about is knowing exactly how much is going out each month. This is the best advice because once you have a clear idea of what is going out, then you can realistically plan for how much needs to come in.

Apple Calendar and Calendly

I use iCal for all of my scheduling because it is super user friendly, it is easy to read and navigate and it syncs up with all of my devices. My first suggestion is to color coordinate your events. My calendar looks like a rainbow, but something so simple can really make a difference in how quickly you can analyze what you have going on. Another cool thing that I have recently starting doing is sharing invites with others for meetings, interviews, and events. So, for instance if I schedule a phone meeting with a client, I can simply email them the invite to the event on my calendar. They can then add it to their calendar so we are less likely to miss or forget to schedule the event.

If you are not a Mac user, I have also used a website for shared invites in the past through Calendly. You can setup your account to offer a specific length for meetings on certain days and time of the week. Then, when you send someone a link to your profile, they can choose from those options!

Planning Personal Time

When it comes to doing fun things put these on the calendar just as you would a work related task. I have even gone as far as to schedule my workouts, coffee dates with friends, and lately even dinner at my mom’s house.

Harvey MacKay says it best in this quote, “Time is Free but it’s priceless. You can’t own it but you can use it. You cannot keep it but you can spend it. Once you have lost it you can never get it back.” Use your time wisely and start implementing these tips today into your workflow and daily habits to help use your time more wisely. If things seem not quite right and you feel like you are still messing up, that is okay, too. You’ll get there! Because like we say every episode, Mistakes Make Magic.

LINKS REFERENCED:
My Hours: Time Tracker
ValMarie Paper
Dave Ramsey’s Complete Guide To Money
Calendly

SPONSORS:
Showit – User-Friendly Web Design Platform: Use code MAGIC for 10% off your subscription!
Black River Imaging High Quality Online Print Site: Use code MAGIC for 20% off your order!

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