TIME TO PLAN AND ORGANIZE AN PERSONAL WORKFLOW:
There comes a time when any author or creator starts to accumulate a lot of documents. Manuscript files, first drafts, editor drafts, book cover files, social media images, how-to information, checklists, not to mention a work calendar of some kind. You can see that it can get overwhelming very quickly.
The trick to getting and staying organized is to analyze what type of work flow you have and what solutions and systems you need to cover all your bases. That’s what this blog post is all about.
There are lots of videos where people show you their work-flow setups, or their personal filing system. But every single person — even those producing the same type of work — will have different needs, different goals and even different outcomes.
Why not learn how to create your own system and workflow by analyzing what goals you have now and what needs to be done to achieve them?
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE GET SCATTERED AND OVERWHELMED?
What happens? You lose momentum. Without enough organization and a defined mission, most of us fall into a state of chaos. Some worse than others. You can’t see the forest for the trees because you can’t envision how to get from point A to point B. Your energy scatters. You lose your stride. The next thing you know. an invisible white flag goes up and you find yourself watching mindless videos as a distraction. Don’t let this happen to you anymore.
Before we start into mapping out any specific business strategies or personal goals, it’s important to get a handle of your everyday obligations as they stand today. Make a list of all you need to accomplish on a regular basis, plus your everyday must-dos, plus setting up your location, having your supplies and tools handy — this creates the perfect setup. This will lead to your personal work-flow. Once you know your unique workflow, then organizing a calendar and a filing system to match it will be easy.
BENEFITS TO ORGANIZING A WORKFLOW
Once you implement this system, you will eliminate all of the time eaters and time wasters. You can reacclimate yourself at any moment of the day. You can find your place in an instance. No more lost days or lost weekends. Most of the stress and worry about getting everything done will disappear. You will rely on your proven plan and proven system. You’ll accomplish almost double of what you’re accomplishing now.
IT ALL BEGINS WITH A LIST OF THE THINGS YOU NEED TO DO ON A WEEKLY BASIS.
Most people are balancing a personal life and a work life. Thinking about what you need to accomplish at work without taking into account all that is required in your personal life is a recipe for disaster. Your goals will be unrealistic and it will be a setup to fail.. It’s important to plan around realistic personal and business goals.
I am a self-published author writing in retirement right now. I own a home and live alone. So taking care of and maintaining myself as well as my home is my responsibility. Going to church, keeping up with friends and family, and even leaving time for a hobby or two, these are all sketched into my work flow plan. Everything you do requires time and energy. So having a realistic over-arching monthly plan of accomplishment will be the basis of your own personal workflow and system.
IT ALL STARTS FROM YOUR ROUTINE AND A REALISTIC LIST OF THINGS TO ACCOMPLISH:
Make a list of what a week in your life looks like. For me, I write novels, do book marketing, write blog posts and make videos (for marketing reasons as well as sharing my experience and knowledge with others).
On the personal side, I do freezer cooking once every three to four weeks where I spend the greater part of a day cooking for the month. I go to the gym three days a week with my cousin. And I organize a lunch with my neighborhood friends once a month as well. My workflow is knitted around these events, activities and goals. This is where my workflow starts. Your workflow design will start with your week-in-the-life information about yourself.
ASSIGN REALISTIC TIME SLOTS TO THE VARIOUS TASKS:
I can’t stress it enough how important being realistic about how much time things normally take is. For example: When I set aside time to write on a novel, I use two to 3 hour spaces in a day. If I can schedule one or two of these spots a week, I can continue writing at least two novels a year. If I can afford more time in some weeks, all the better. I choose quiet days without doctor appointments or other family or friend obligations where I will have quiet time to write.
I save some general research to do when I do my freezer cooking. During this time, I play writing videos in the background, so I can learn from other authors. Sometimes I play marketing videos. But I use the cooking time efficiently. I’m still moving forward with my goals, even when I’m cooking! Multi-tasking works!
Go through the entire list of things to do and put down realistic time slots for everything.
LOCATION | LOCATION | LOCATION:
Alongside the time allotment, add the location you need to be in to do this work. Also list what supplies, trinkets or tools you need to accomplish each. Plus, add whatever you like to have on hand like coffee.
Here’s a personal example: To write, sit in corner of my bedroom in a chair, with my laptop, with a table set up next to it. I like to drink coffee when I write, so I make sure I have a pot ready and on hand. I also place a pad and pen on the table so I can down any new names I choose during the writing process. I write in Scrivener which is loaded onto my laptop, so that’s all I need for the entire writing session. By recreating your perfect environment you can design a setup or gathering list so you won’t keep interrupting yourself with forgotten items.
When I am videotaping, I need my laptop, Snagit tool, printed video script, ideas for the YouTube thumbnail, a pen, ideas for text overlays, ideas for video graphic elements, and a ring light. To shoot a video, I also use a two to three hour workspace. I’m new at making videos so younger people may be able to work faster than this.
BUT I DON’T HAVE THAT MUCH TIME:
If you are someone who has a limited amount of time to achieve the goal of writing a novel, it’s okay. You can convert an hour a day into a book as long as you are organized and can protect your writing time. I published my first five books while still working full time. So I know it can be done.
Go through your life — at least those parts you are attempting to organize for efficiency — and analyze them as I suggested below. That list will become the basis of your personalized work flow and your ultimate work calendar.
MAKE A WEEKLY CALENDAR:
Add on your church and family obligations, school obligations, and you can then see realistically how much time you will have to write or do whatever your passion is.
It’s a good idea to make your list and live with it for the first few days or a week. A couple of things may happen. First, the time slots you gave each item may be much shorter than you thought or much longer than you thought. So adjust them as you go along.
Another thing that will happen is other obligations will arise that you didn’t remember when making the list. So before you write the list in stone and start planning around it, give yourself time to make the necessary and realistic adjustments. By the end of a week or two, you will be clear on what you need to do to set up a winning and successful plan to take you to where you want to be.
WHAT COMES NEXT?
In the next installment of this series, I’ll talk about getting more efficient. How to rid yourself and your life of time eaters, energy zappers, and other dead-end roads to nothing but time loss with zero accomplishments.
We’ll also talk about how to reclaim time and energy from your life to better apply it to your personal goals.
Here is a video I recorded covering most of the above material: