Starting your business? Trust me on this, GET A SCHEDULE

Day 90-- So you think you are the Wonder Woman (or Superman) of organizing? Well good for you...you can stop reading now and later after I lure you in with a cup of coffee I am gonna have Wonder Woman give you the lasso treatment cause no one is ever as organized as they want to be...

Image Source (yes that is the NEW 21st Century Wonder Woman, I think she is pretty awesome)

Now back to creating a schedule- I don't just mean go out and buy a planner although there are some sweet planners out there that look cool and will make you feel better that you actually went out and bought one. Oh yea you know who you are--seriously you need to recycle those empty planners from 1999 on because honey they are a one time use only and you just need to let go-move on.

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Here is what has worked for me:

Get yourself a simple piece(s) of notebook paper and a pencil. Sit down and write out everything you should be doing, need to do, want to do. I mean everything--even the activities your kids are in, your exercise schedule, chores...everything you want to do in a day, week, month. I even included the maintenance stuff that is included in running a business-blogging, advertising, planning and website.

I happen to have a whiteboard handy so on it I wrote out my annual schedule of what I need to do each month only in terms of planning ahead for the next season, so it is very general just to keep me on track. This is where I also put the general blog topics to focus on every day. All of this sounds really anal but it has gotten me back to a focus that I felt was slipping away behind all the homeschooling, family and kid stuff that seems overwhelming sometimes.

Then I went out and splurged on a plain ole desk calendar [these are cheap remember we are also trying to keep business costs down]. The black and white large kind that you can also hang on the wall. Simple and big enough to put all your stuff on-it even has a cute little note section at the bottom. Those of you who are offended by it's simplicity can get your creativity on by putting a frame or fabric around it.

Now if you were to look in my purse you would also find that I have a pocket calendar but it has been turned to March since at least February because I find I just don't use it--and if I do I forget to transfer stuff to my main one on the desk. Per my instructions above this empty date book will be recycled as 2010 starts to play itself out--but I still carry it around in case lets say I suddenly need a piece of paper to throw my gum out in-May 15th? pah! wrap gum up and toss in trash--see useful?!

Most of us these days have smartphones--in the calendar function I entered in the obvious big stuff like appts; kid events; meeting with clients; big deadlines useful stuff when you need to set an appt or I use a note app to remind myself of things until I get home.

As an artist you need to create so this is really the biggie when scheduling things--obviously the family and kid stuff will go to the top of the list of must dos but you need to make sure you are giving yourself enough time to make things or sketch out ideas. Once you make this schedule STICK TO IT as best you can.

I do keep a teeny notebook of ripoutable pages in my purse where I write down ideas that pop into my head and new appts to add to my desk calendar. Here is what is vital---I DO NOT SAY YES TO ANYTHING UNTIL I HAVE CONSULTED MY PHONE AND/OR CALENDAR AT HOME.

See these guys didn't plan--they didn't plan on some gold crazed Spaniard in a shiny helmet to show up on the beach either but that is a whole 'nother story.

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Lets say you did all of this and added a few of your own bag of tricks and you are starting to feel out of control again.....guess what? I give you permission to start the process over again! Maybe there are some things that are just not working and some new things that will work better. Go ahead and switch things around-it is your business and you have to do what feels right to you.

So be your own version of Wonder Woman (or Superman)-yea this image is forever burned into my retinas-methinks it is perhaps a good thing that there is a new 21st century wardrobe now for this heroine *shudder*

Image Source<--if you click on this you might want to A. make sure your kids are not in the room and B. well don't say at least I did not warn you that this is what happens when you use Google Images and type in 'Wonder Woman'

Then again I could be wrong about all of it cause this post was scheduled for Wednesday, time and projects just got away from me and I was not able to get to this--but that is ok I give myself permission to break schedule every once in a while lol