Learning to be organised in your creative business
how I now use a paper calendar too
I don’t know about you, but as my kids get older my diary gets ever more frenetic. Their lovely (but seemingly exhausting) mix of school, social and extra-curricular activities mean I am an impressive taxi service and Virtual Assistant. The addition of a new baby and an ever-increasing suspicion that I have ADHD has made it nearly impossible for me to keep track of everything that’s going on in our life.
Being a multi-passionate means I also have multiple email addresses, with lots of admin to juggle. I’ve now realised that this is how I keep myself organised. I’ve come to realise that my unique approach to staying organised could be a valuable insight for those of you, who, like me, struggle to keep on top of everything in your small creative business and vibrant, full life.
My creative business organisation
Trello for idea management: I use Trello to keep on top of all my ideas. Here’s a video to show how I use it in more detail, but in essence the "cards” (lists) I use most frequently are:
weekly systems
this week
this month
texts or links I use a lot
inspiration
2. Email and calendar integration: I have a Google email address so I use Google Meet (formerly Hangouts) to run my calls, and Google calendar for scheduling. This syncs beautifully with Calendly, where I offer free 20 minute discovery calls. I have different folders for each client in my email, and I use my iPhone notes for when I suddenly have an idea I need to write down, RIGHT NOW. And finally, of course, I use Otter.ai to talk out loud any thoughts (if you’re new to me, I’m a massive fan of talking it out and Otter.ai (which is free), is the Best Thing Ever).
3. Email management with Mailerlite: I won’t cover my emails in this blog, but for now I use Mailerlite - I’ll tell you more about it in a future post.
My day-to-day life
We all have iPhones in our family, so from day to day we use Apple Calendar (previously iCal) to keep on top of what each of us is doing. I have a calendar: “Lou (my family nickname) misc”, “Laura Singing”, “xxxx (my husband’s name)”, my mum’s, my dad’s, my sister’s, a “family” calendar (which is where we write anything where we’re all involved), “children’s activities” (fairly obvs) and “Laura School” for any teaching commitments.
Now here’s the important bit:
For anything outside of our usual plans, I write it in a paper calendar. I have a different section for each member of our family. Writing it out makes me actually remember it - I know that otherwise the sea of plans already in the phone just swims in front of my eyes. Writing it out makes me go “REMEMBER THIS IS NEW LAURA.” It has transformed my organisation.
The rest of the time - just like with my business - it’s iPhone Notes and Otter.ai
my Singing commitments
Google calendar, email folders, extras added to paper calendars. The end.
This combination of online for the regular things, Google throughout for my business (and Trello for my systems), and paper calendars for anything new, to prove to my brain it’s happening is what’s working now.
What about you? What’s working for you? I’d love to know in the comments below.
With love,
Laura x
If you enjoyed reading this blog post, here’s a few more that you may find useful for your creative small business: