This year as we began to strategize for all the big changes coming our way, we made a huge shift in our business schedule, and friends, it has been one of the most productive strategies we have ever implemented! We have officially created an efficient work week for our business, and if we had to say, it has us completing tasks at least 50% faster, giving us more time to take on new projects and find time to rest. (We can honestly say, that rarely ever happened when we first set out on this journey.)
So, exactly how did we do it? A while back, we learned the benefits of block scheduling, but up until a little bit ago, had only implemented it individually. While we noticed big gains in our productivity levels, we also knew we could be making bigger strides if we were even more aligned. As our goals became more clear and we began to design our new path, we decided we wanted to create a block schedule for the business. This meant each day of the week would be dedicated to completing certain tasks in order to streamline our scheduling, further increase our productivity and build consistency in all aspects of what we do. And wouldn’t you know?! It’s working!
Being five years into entrepreneurship, we have found it so very helpful to understand how other successful businesses streamline their processes and find ways to be productive in order to be more profitable. In turn, one of our goals this year has been to share more of our practices so others can do the same. While we both live different (yet, just as busy) lives, we knew it was important for the business to operate like a well-oiled machine, especially as it and our families continue to grow.
Now that we’ve been practicing our new scheduling for several weeks and are feeling more in a groove, we’d love to share with you exactly what an efficient work week looks like for us. Our hope is that you can take pieces of our business practices and implement them into yours, so you can build a more purposeful and profitable business.
How We’ve Created an Efficient Work Week for Our Business
1. Daily Themes
First and foremost, we gave each day a recurring theme. By doing this, we are able to schedule our calendar further in advance. It also makes it easier to schedule personal and professional appointments since we already have a good understanding of what our week will look like months out.
2. Hardest Most Creative Work First
We’ve always heard you should schedule your hardest and most creative work first. Why you might ask? Because you tend to be more alert and able to focus. Therefore, that energy should not be spent on trivial tasks. Plus, if you’re completing your toughest and/or most creative work first, it will motivate you to complete your remaining tasks that will seem even easier to accomplish. With that, we assigned our most inspired work to the beginning of the week to get our creative juices flowing and drive the remainder.
3. Dedicated Days and Times for Inbox Management & Email Communication
Finally, we are no longer controlled by our inboxes. This tactic alone has saved us hours upon hours each week and only has us wishing we had implemented it sooner. We no longer wake up and begin responding to emails. Instead, we have dedicated days and times to managing our virtual communication. As mentioned above, it is best to plan your hardest and most creative work first, so emails should certainly come after those tasks are complete. Unless it is truly an urgent matter, we have assigned email communication to afternoons and inbox management to the middle and end of week.
Our Weekly Business Schedule
Monday
Morning Theme: Sourcing & Inspiration
Mondays tend to be the toughest days to be productive after enjoying a restful weekend, so we decided to make it a day we look forward to every week. On Mondays, we head out to source props, decor and groceries for upcoming editorial shoots (both for us and for our clients) and to find inspiration for the projects we are currently working on. We also dedicate Mondays to returning products we don’t plan on using or keeping, so we’re no longer scrambling before our receipts expire.
Afternoon Theme: Social Media Management for Clients
We currently manage a handful of clients who have hired us to manage their social media accounts. So, on Mondays we schedule half of our clients’ social media content two weeks out, and the other half the following Monday. This service includes scheduling the images that will be posted and when as well as creating the captions that will paired with them.
Tuesday
Theme: Photography & Videography
As we were planning out our work week, we felt Tuesdays were the best for photographing and filming content for several reasons. Mondays allow us to source any last minute items we need for our content shoots (i.e. props, decor and groceries) and also time to make preparations. If we planned for shoots on Mondays, it would require some prep to be done on the weekends. However, since we’ve become pretty strict about finding REST on the weekends, that was not an option. On Wednesdays, Jenna’s littles get out of school an hour early which would cut into our shoot time. Thursdays just felt too far out into the week (i.e. feeling tired and less inspired) to create really beautiful work. Fridays, we just wanted to be a bit more flexible and reflective as we prepared for the weekend.
Wednesday
Theme: Admin Day
Believe it or not, editorial shoot days require more mental and physical capacity than one might think. Because we know this, we knew Wednesday would be the perfect in-office day. Our admin days consist of much of our business management processes including bookkeeping, managing our inboxes, sending proposals, scheduling our social media and any various tasks that need to be completed.
Thursday
Theme: Editing Day
After having a day to catch up on admin, Thursdays are the perfect day for editing the content we created on Tuesday. And if we’re editing video for our YouTube channel, it’s sure to provide a few good laughs.
Friday
Theme: Blogging & Scheduling
Because we knew we’d be blogging full time, we knew it was important to dedicate a day to writing and scheduling our content. What better day than Friday?! It allows us to be a bit more flexible and focus on the content we created earlier in the week. It’s so satisfying seeing all the pieces come together in each blog post and the perfect way to wrap up our week.
So tell us, do you currently have a strategy for creating an efficient work week for your business? If so, we’d love to hear in the comments below!
Also, if you begin to use any of our strategies and share them on social media, be sure to tag us and use #TheBusyBoss so we can follow along. We’d love to share your journey and success!
xo
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