I’ve never been a planner. I’ve always found that I can work through chaos (or even a hurricane) because I learned discipline and focus from an early age. A naturally organized person? Nope, I did not get that gene, and it’s only through discipline and focus that I’ve learned to love planning and strategizing.
Keeping all the aspects of a business organized and running smoothly is difficult at best, especially if you don’t have a system or a plan of what to do when. Even if you have a big picture plan of where you want to be in five years, you need a daily plan to get those admin tasks completed along with your marketing tasks and your content creation as well as selling your products and working with your clients. It’s enough to make your head spin, isn’t it?
Daily Task List
Creating a plan of action or a daily task list will keep you organized and focused from the moment you sit down to do work. Over at the Online Visibility Academy we call these “can-do” lists. You know exactly what has to get done, without question. You’ll know when you need to write blog posts, when to send emails, when to do your invoicing, and when to schedule your client calls.
Make Yourself Your Client
As much as you want to be fully booked, leave some space for yourself to complete your administrative tasks. Running your business is equally as important as caring for your clients, so make your business tasks a priority, including your content creation.
Blocking time is a popular way to schedule longer tasks, such as blog post writing or email marketing. Set aside an hour or two, write up those posts or emails, get them scheduled, then move on to the next list item. If you block enough time, eventually you’ll start having two or three (or more!) pieces of content ready to publish at any given time, which will relieve your pressure. In fact you’ll find it becomes easier because you have the space to create.
Eliminate Writer’s Block with a Content Creation Plan
No more sitting at the computer to write a blog post only to stare at a blank screen with no thoughts!
- Schedule some time on your calendar to plan out your writing, video recording, or other content creation; not only when you’ll get this done but what topics you’ll discuss.
- Create an editorial calendar and make note of important topics or themes. Is there a big event coming up in your city or in your niche? Write about it. Interview panelists and speakers.
- Become an affiliate for those companies sponsoring the event and interview them
- Are you planning the launch of your signature product? Schedule special content around the launch date.
Outsource Your Content Creation
If creating content isn’t your strength, I’d be happy to have a chat with you. But keep in mind, you still need to have a plan or an editorial calendar. This way your content creator has deadlines to meet and you will have a stress-free outsourcing experience.
As you can read, all of this is actually fun and doesn’t feel like planning at all!
Use a Planner
I also use planners extensively to track my time. I’m an advocate of Zero-White Space in my diary. You can get a planner for everything these days and you’ll find two or three planners that you love and will use them the most. Planners are a great investment.
I have a superb content planner that will cover a year’s worth of content, and enable you to track your results with ease. Get it here – https://www.sarkemedia.com/contentplanner
You can also create your own planners using these templates and then get it printed using Lulu.com if you don’t want to use all your printer ink! The great thing about planning templates is that you can use them to create lead magnets and content upgrades for your business very quickly and easily!
So to recap…
- Use a daily task list and track everything
- Make yourself your client
- Create a content plan so your content and your offers align
- Outsource your content creation if it gets overwhelming
- Use a planner
Over to you – What did you do to love planning?
Sarah
P.S Here’s a free, no-optin 5-day planner so you can try your hand at using a planner to gain results in your business.
