▶︎ some thoughts on time management for small creative studios ◀︎
I’ve been having some issues striking a work life balance recently, I'm sure many of you can relate. Especially when you work from home and have your own company. I often feel like I’m spread too thin - and too many roles in the business get ignored. One of my major failings is self promotion and a consistent social media presence. I am setting challenge to remedy this.
So some ideas / resources that have helped me focus:
► RUTHLESSLY PRIORITISE ◀︎
Writing long lists can sometimes be counterproductive causing sense of chaos and leave you feeling overwhelmed. I always start with a long list to get everything down - but then I sometimes forget to categorise. This is crucial. Break it up. Make it manageable. Remember to Identify high-priority tasks and tackle them first.
▶︎ BE CLEVER WITH TECH ◀︎
This one really resonated with me. I used to think organisation tools were overwhelming and time consuming. You have to find one that suits you and your work flow.
If you don’t like inputting all your thoughts down on a digital platform - don’t feel pressure to. Our whole lives are digitally run now - the odd ‘old school’ note pad for thoughts / lists is still a valid method and helps to give you a break from digital tasks. Use a platform like notion.io for project management to give you and your work organised plans and keep you on track.
▶︎ GROUP SIMILAR TASKS ◀︎
This one is pretty obvious but gets overlooked. When I am working on a load of different tasks it is easy to get distracted by a message etc but this can cause issues with productivity. So it's crucial to group related tasks together for efficiency, and turn off your notifications for deep work! This approach keeps me focused, establishing clear boundaries for prioritising tasks at any given moment.
► INTELLIGENTLY DELEGATE ◀︎
All this is well and good but if you just have too much to realistically do then don’t stress about it - outsource. Reach out to your community and get help. Thanks to the internet we always have someone to reach out to.
► SAY NO ◀︎
This is difficult for a lot pf people. It takes practice but it is so important. Don’t take stuff on that you can’t manage / don’t have space for / isn’t right for you. It won’t help it will just make you feel worse. (I’m speaking from experience)
► CHANGE IT UP ◀︎
Don’t just doggedly persist doing everything the same forever. If something isn’t working, be open to change. Conversely, if a process is effective, stick with it. I understand that altering a process can be challenging, especially if it requires more effort initially. Basically it’s always good to be open minded and learn new ways of doing things.
HELPFUL RESOURCES ► ► ► ► ► ►
https://todoist.com/ - personal organisation and task management
https://www.notion.so/ - great for managing projects sharing progress with clients etc
https://www.getharvest.com/ - time tracker for different projects (keep and eye on your hours)
https://www.taskade.com/ - ai help and great visualisation tool
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique - The general technique however you implement it. NOTE - I don’t find that this helps when working on development projects, as it can break important thought processes but it’s great for design stuff to stop you getting stagnant.
