I may have the same 24 hours in a day as Beyonce, but I don’t have Queen B’s team.
In fact, I am my team. So in order for me to get it all done, ya girl has to be well organized. In college, I was a triple major (B.S. Biology, B.A Music, B.A Theatre, cum laude), while holding down two jobs so I’m no stranger to juggling. I now work full time in a lab, am working to build my brand as a style influencer/fashion blogger. I’m also planning to get my Master’s Degree.
In order for me to make it all work, and have some type of work-life balance I have to stay organized. It’s essential. It’s a balancing act, and I have to maximize every minute so that I can hit all of my goals. I’ve always been pretty well organized, and I thought I’d share a few of the tips that help me get it all done:
5 Tips To Help You Stay Organized
1) Brain dump
I bet you thought my first tip was going to be to create a schedule, and that’s up next but first, you need to know what you want to schedule. I’m the kind of person who always seems to have a bunch of tabs open in my brain, and a lot of ideas that pop into my head, so I like to keep lists of my ideas in a cute notebook. That’s literally all a brain dump is, a list of your ideas. You can do this in a notebook, in the notes app on your phone, a google doc if you’re fancy, but it’s helpful to get everything out of your system.
In this stage, my goal isn’t to flesh anything out, plan anything, or schedule it. I just need to write it down so I don’t forget it later. Blog post ideas, video ideas, outfit ideas that I want to shoot, recipes to try, etc. I find a blank sheet in my notebook, and brain dump everything on it so that I can come back to it when I’m ready.
2) Create a schedule
Creating a schedule for yourself is so important. It’s even more important that you create a *realistic* and not idealisitc schedule. I’m the kind of person who likes to use a planner, the calendar on my phone, and my google calendar. This sounds excessive, but there’s a method to my madness and you can adapt this as you see fit lol.
The Planner
I use my planner as a catch-all for everything. I write down my meetings for work, goals for the week, appointments, when I plan to upload a new video, events, date night, etc. My planner is where I can see everything happening in my life at once. Writing things down first helps me get a better handle of what I have going on. I have a pink 2020 Passion Planner (there are a few versions, mine is the small dated one with the weeks starting on Sundays) that I got online on Amazon, and I like it because it allows me to see an overall monthly calendar, and then plan each week out by days and time slots. I can also set goals for each week, recap the good things that happened (gotta stay grateful and focus on the positive!), and there’s a little section in there for me to write weekly to-do lists and brain dump as well.
Even with having separate calendars, it’s important to have a place where you can see everything at once.
The iPhone Calendar
I use my phone calendar sort of in the same way, and I make sure that I set alerts and reminders. This way I’m up for work on time, never miss a meeting, doctor’s appointment, etc. My goal with my calendar is to coordinate my work and personal life. Anytime I get an email with an invite to a meeting, or an appointment, I click to add it to my calendar as an event and set a reminder. My phone and apple watch are jumpin’ jumpin’. Also if you have multiple electronic devices that you use on a regular basis, syncing is your best friend.
The google calendar
Lastly, my google calendar is solely dedicated to my brand and content. Upload deadlines, brand deadlines, filming, editing, etc. As Mattie James says it’s not enough to just have a schedule for your content, I have to schedule the process of creating as well so I can make sure I get it done. Otherwise, I’m not able to produce at the level I would like to and that’s if I produce anything at all.
I want to add that I sync my google calendar to my iPhone calendar so that I can see what I have going on overall easily.
If you want to streamline and simplify this process, you can get yourself a planner and then utilize your phone calendar (or google calendar, and just sync it to your phone calendar) and be good to go.
3) make a to-do list
Making to-do lists is one of the main things that really helps me to stay organized. I have so much going on, that it’d be real easy for me to forget things and then be thrown off later on. It’s up to you if you want to write a to-do list on a daily basis or a weekly basis. I try to write an overall list of things that I want to accomplish that week, and then schedule in what days things will actually get done. If it’s a busy day (filming, work project, etc) then I will make a to-do list for that day either the night before (ideal) or early on in the morning.
You can do this in your planner, on post-its, in the reminders app on your iPhone, and there are other great productivity apps out there as well that can help you as well. If you go the digital route, be sure to set reminders this way your able to get to everything in enough time.
4) Know when to say no
I’m a giver, and I love to help. A lot of the time, this has come at the expense of time that I needed to accomplish things for myself (meanwhile I made sure everybody was taken care of, they’re now chilling and I have to make up for lost time). I’ve learned that in the interest of protecting my mental space, and making sure I’m able to honor my priorities (and myself as a priority) there are times when I must just say no.
No, I can’t make that event, no I can’t assist with *fill in the blank project*, no I can’t come by later and hang out (especially if this means I can’t film or shoot for another week since today was the only day I have time to), just NO. Sometimes I do feel bad about saying no, but I’ve learned that I realistically can’t say yes to everything. Also, if saying “yes” means saying “no” to myself and my priorities: we got a problem.
5) Know when to rest
Knowing when to get rest was the hardest thing for me on this entire list. I would always feel like taking a break was wasting time that I could be using to accomplish something, but then I would find myself feeling burnt out on a regular basis. It’s important to know when to take a break and then come back to your task. Maybe you feel better when you take a 20-minute nap after work and then work on your side hustle. Or maybe you just carve out a couple of hours on the weekends for self-care and to binge-watch a new Netflix series.
One of my favorite things to do at night is warm my stress relief candle from Bath & Bodyworks, and catch up on YouTube videos. On a good night, I might even grab a snack. Strawberries and Nutella anyone?
6) Automate Everything.
As a content creator and influencer, this is how I get it all done. I work a whole 9-5, so in order to keep things moving with my content, I have to create everything ahead of time and then schedule it to post. Instagram posts? Scheduled. Tweets? Scheduled. YouTube Uploads? Scheduled. Facebook posts? Scheduled. Pinterest pins? Scheduled. Shoot, this weekend I even wrote an email follow up to a brand rep and scheduled it to automatically send Monday morning so it’d be fresh in their inbox.
If you want me to do a post specifically dedicated to how I maximize my productivity as an influencer, and what apps I use let me know in the comments!
Stylishly Yours,
Theresa Seyi
P.S. Details on my hair here
0