Managing your time
Does it seem to you like you are always working? Always “on”? There’s an ever-present “hustle” mentality in our culture, and it makes it easy to feel as if you’ve got to be available at all hours of the day or night to address any issue (or potential issue). Living this way can quickly derail your ability to pursue your vision. Burnout, stress, and anxiety are just the tipping point of how this style of time management can impact your mental health and your personal life.
We rely on three tried-and-true applications to manage our time and make sure our creativity isn’t impacted by the practical demands of running a business and offering exceptional service to our clients.
Communicate your boundaries. Determine when the best time is for you to get your work done, and when it’s best for you to have meetings. We all have different daily rhythms – some of us are early birds and some are night owls! Build your schedule around what works for you and for your life. We use Calendly to set our availability for meetings and block off any personal obligations (picking up kids from school, taking the dog for a walk, or whatever you’ve got going on), as well as our most creative time so that we can make the most of our creative time.
Turn off your notifications. We block off time to check email, voicemail, and social media. Unless there’s a critical emergency, there shouldn’t be a reason for you to be immediately available to everyone. You can help communicate this to your clients in your onboarding documents, and you can also set up an auto-response for your emails that is on-brand and communicates how people can get in touch with you in the event of a real emergency.
Leverage your calendar. Around here, we rely on a digital platform to manage our day-to-day calendar. Along with our scheduling platform, this allows our calendar to be updated without adding something else to your to-do list. Setting time aside each morning to look at your day and plan for what’s ahead helps you be in the right mental space to do the most with your time. We have also found that the more we get used to planning for the day ahead, the more we’re willing to set boundaries and be our best throughout the day.
Do you have other strategies you use to make the most of your time? Let us know!
