I've been thinking a lot lately about giving myself a VERY set schedule. I love photography because it does enable me to be flexible, but not necessarily productive.

I work really well with lists- and I've been thinking about sectioning off my days, so that I don't spend too much or too little time in any aspect of my business. I already do this to a certain degree, but I'm talking about very specific tasks, listed out and laminated (haha, you know it's serious when it's laminated), on my wall. I do certain things on certain days- I don't do them on others.

I can see this working really well, and really badly. What works for you guys?

You sound like you've been reading "The Four Hour Workweek" by Tim Ferriss. I'm a big list person myself (though not to the extent of laminating!) and think I would really benefit from sectioning my days. Too much of my time is spent by trying to multitask or through all the various other distractions such as email, internet.... Hopefully this works well for you.

I think this potentially can work well, though appointments, etc always come up so you sometimes have to work around that. At the beginning of each day, I normally try to make plan (semi "section" out the day) keeping in mind what appointments, etc we have during the day so that I can make a "schedule" based off of a realistic time table.

Though this is a little off topic from you question, I did have one other thing as food for thought that Chris and I tried after reading the 4 Hour Work Week. Just as a test, try cutting 2 hours off of each of each work day for one week. I know it seems like you don't have that time to just get rid of, but what was interesting is that when chris and i did this, we found that we were SO much more productive because we knew our time was being cut short, and we still managed to get everything done (and sometimes with a little extra time)! I think that even if you don't adopt this permanently, it's a really good thing to do for one week so you can realize how efficient you can be, AND figure out what the real priorities are and aren't for your business, when you are forced to cut off 10 hours from the work week. I think it also made us realize that we need to have clear goals and a clear purpose for each day because we realized that whether our work day was 6 hours or 12 hours, we would just fill it working on SOMETHING, even if it's not the most productive thing.

Just some food for thought that was interesting and helpful for us

I NEED lists. If I don't have it written right in front of me what I need to get done, I don't get anything done.

I think this is a great idea, your laminated lists:) I've heard it takes 21 days to create a new habit, so you'll have to really try hard to use those lists for 3 weeks.

Just yesterday, I decided not to write out my "to dos" for every day this week. Instead, I decided to write it only for Monday. That way, it's less overwhelming. So psychologically, I think that if you only have one day of the week list visible, I think that would be most helpful for you!

I love lists, but I also love being lazy and putting things off. That's why I do better with more immediate goals in mind, like Ginger was talking about. I want to get X number of things don on Tuesday but I don't set up a specific time to do them. I like being able to work on it when I'm in the mood and then stopping when I get a little frustrated so I don't burn myself out.

I have been thinking a lot about this too... This is how my day goes...
Check email
leave email open and check osp
get an email ding... false alarm, it is spam.
Start to edit... did anyone reply yet to my post on osp? Maybe I'll quick check.
another email ding... this time a real customer. Let me answer her a minute
Where is my planner with my schedule? (I need it to answer the email)... Looking for the planner
This table is a mess, let me clean it off a minute...
Oh yeah, I have to get this order ready to ship...
Let me go down stairs to get a box to ship...
Here is the box, but wait, I need to order more print boxes,
Let me quick go online to order more.... Oh that is right, I was going to check my osp post....
Oh, I got another email, just spam again....

And now, did I get anyting done? NO! I just spent the last 2 hours doing NOTHING!

haha--I feel your pain Kari!

I'm making a few priorities this year, one of which is to check email less often--though I think for me, and maybe some of you, it's hard because I'm a social person and I crave that interaction. While I LOVE my business, I've found that I spend a lot more time in front of the computer and alone working on projects than I ever used to in the past. So that email provides a welcome break to the outside world.
I've found that using Google's Calendar in conjunction with my google apps account is working really well for us. In addition, I've been looking for some good 'to-do' list services and I'm really liking Sandy (www.IwantSandy.com) so far. And apparently you can use it with Jott too... kinda cool.

I really like your idea Katie of cutting 2 hours out of each work day. I tend to let things go on until I'm done with the task--rather than setting firm hours like I should... I think that's going to be my new goal for the next month... see if I can make that work.

Schedules rock! They help keep you from getting burnt out on one or two particular parts of your business, and they help keep you from allocating too much time to one part of your business while other parts get left behind.

The combination of schedules and a To Do list is even better! Now you don't just do random tasks during your schedule work time based on any and everything that comes at you... you do the things that NEED to be done based on a pre-determined list. David Allen's Getting Things Done methodology is a good way to go for task management!

Here's my schedule for reference. The "GTD" time slots are designated to getting things done on my task list.

Keep your schedules simple and to the point, and if you keep them consistently, you'll be amazed at how effective you can be!

"No matter how hectic life gets, the most successful people in life have a big-picture view that helps them rise above the chaos and maintain their perspective."

Julie Morgenstern, Time Management from the Inside Out


You're so right Katie! I think that can be a big struggle with photographers these days - not knowing their ultimate goal (where they want to be in 25 years), so day to day or week to week activities are kind of haphazard. I think it's great to sit down and lay out your ultimate goal and then the resulting long term and short term goals so that you will be able to more easily structure your day to day and week to week activities!

Wow, it's good to hear that you are all thinking about this (and getting interrupted) as well.

I have read (but not finished) "Getting Things Done", and have implemented the task/project method. It's much nicer to separate the big long-term things away from the quick routine things.

I really like Nathan's schedule- especially the rules and the fact that you have weekly appointments as well as daily. Do photoshoots come only after 4:00? Or what happens when you need to shoot at 2:30? Just curious.

Keep in mind this is my schedule, and my shoots usually happen in the evening after 4. Amber's "schedule" is a little crazier...

Remember, not all interruptions are bad. We WANT to be interrupted by brides wanting to book. Those are "good" interruptions, and should be planned for.
When making your schedule, put in a little "make up time" to make up for those. How much time would depend on your average call length and frequency.
If your average inquiry is 20 minutes, and you average one per day, add in that 20 minutes somewhere in your schedule. If you do not get that call on a given day, DO NOT use that time for OSP. You already have that scheduled, right?

Let me recommend a book. "If You Don't Have Time To DO It Right The First Time, When Will You Find The Time To DO It Over?" by Jeffery Mayer. He is also the author of "Time Management For Dummies." (I wrote one of the testimonials for that one).

Mark

I hear ya Kari! I had the same problem and then I read someone's advice about eliminating distractions. The first thing they pointed out was turning of your email notification or calendar alarm. Designate a time to check your email twice a day and stick to it. We're all addicted to email, let's admit it, so setting a schedule for that helps your productivity real quick. It's awesome to be able to reply to inquiries right away and making our clients feel appreciated, but we don't have to reply the second they write to us.