After working in the film industry for over two decades (where everything changes in a heartbeat but still needs to be done, like YESTERDAY 😋), I learned to become incredibly organized.
When I’m looking at my business plans, I like to have a bird’s eye view of everything that’s on my schedule. Knowing when projects are coming up, when launches are happening, and when travel is on the docket is crucial to staying on top of all my content creation, marketing, and client fulfillment.
Below I’ll go through some of the tools that I use everyday in order to keep my big rocks and smaller rocks in order.
What do I mean by big ‘rocks’ and small ‘rocks’?
Big rocks are things and events that are non-negotiable on my schedule like launch dates, personal dates, and travel dates. Smaller rocks are tasks and and events that fall into quarterly, weekly, and daily planning.
Tool #1: Dry Erase Wall Calendar
I have my entire year at a glance with all ‘big rocks’ in one visible and easy to digest container. I block off all dates that I’ll be engaged on projects, travel, or personal things, and this allows me a quick and easy way to see what availability and schedule I’m working with for the year, as well as how many client projects I’ve booked, and where my business goals are at.
Tool #2: Passion Planner for Weekly & Daily Planning
I personally LOVE the handwritten experience and satisfaction of checking things off of a list, adding color and stickers to my weekly schedule, and just making it a creative experience! This allows me to enjoy the scheduling and planning, and makes it a lot more likely that I’ll stick to it.
I do include the ‘Big Rocks’ in my planner as well, so time off, meetings, launches, everything we discussed above. I use the week at-a-glance feature to add the ‘small rocks’ into my days to ensure I’m moving both pieces of my business forward each week.
Tool #3: Themed Days
What really makes this productive for me is the ability to use the planner to ‘time block’ the smaller rocks into what I like to call ‘Themed Days’. This gives my weeks structure while still providing flexibility to work on what I feel like working on for that day and not blocking myself into working on specific tasks that just don’t fit within my workflow at that time. It’s important to create a workflow that supports your specific work style, not one that will eventually overwhelm and exhaust you.
Tool #4: 17Hats
For my actual daily implementation on the agency side of my business, my team loves 17Hats and all it’s functionality. Project workflows live in here as well as invoicing support. I also really love the amazing email templates that save me HOURS when it comes to client communication and follow up. It keeps my entire team up to speed on where all the projects are currently at and keeps my invoicing and client communication running smoothly as well.
Tool #5: Trello
I love Trello because I’m a visual person and this platform is VERY visual! My team and I use this for so many things: content planning, onboarding, client projects, mapping out launch projects or promotions, and even use it internally to track program processes and system leaks or hiccups.
Tool #6: Google Suite
We use Google folders to make sure that our team has access at all times to the content and assets they need to be able to complete tasks efficiently and easily. It also allows for easy sharing and storage of any evergreen or promotional content that can be duplicated or edited later for reuse. Saving the team time and energy = Winning!
I hope you found it helpful and inspiring to see how I stay organized so that you can get YOUR business organized and running like a well oiled machine in no time!
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I’m Emmy, Storyteller + Strategist who helps coaches & creative entrepreneurs to elevate their online presence, and streamline their operations to increase their impact.
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