It is the first week of January 2024, and I am feeling a slight panic. I haven’t done any goal setting, let alone planned my week. What kind of creative business coach am I? Like most of my clients, I too have a creative ADHD brain. Chasing glitter, easily distracted.
That is why it is super important to bring structure into your business and work schedule, so you keep the overview and keep anxiety at bay. Because, most of the time, the stress you are feeling is not based on reality. The inner voice just keeps screaming at you. The stress is coming from not writing things down, not planning ahead, and not calmly working through a list. When you have a creative ADHD brain, making lists and having a game plan, is crucial.
Build structure in your business: make lists!
So I started with my notebook this morning, just jotting down everything that was in my head causing me this uneasy feeling. This is what I suggest you do too. Out of your head, and onto paper, or onto a screen, whatever works for you. And group it. High priority stuff at the top, longer-term stuff further down.
Here’s what I did:
Taxes and money
– Tax return: finish submitting my invoices and expenses to my accountant
– Income: check my bank account and what has come in from clients
– Saving: create ‘jars’: this is something I wanted to do for ages, to set aside money for taxes (20%) and savings (10%) each month.
Marketing
– Monday: write a new blog post
– Schedule an email to my list for Thursday based on the blog post + create an Instagram post about it as well
– This month: book a photo shoot for new brand photos
– This quarter: look into help for web design
Self-development / training
– Today: attend a live group call with my coach
– This week: watch two videos of the online course I am on, and do the worksheets
Personal tasks:
– This week: pay my art teacher for this month
– Pay for my kids’ school trip
Just seeing it written down in a simple list already makes me feel a lot calmer. When you don’t write things down, these tasks keep circulating in your head and pop up every ten minutes to remind you. The ADHD brain will go crazy! You will be working on your admin, and suddenly that reminder about the kids’ school trip comes up again. It drives you crazy. Once you have it in a list, you know it is there, and you know you will take care of it when ready.
A simple work week structure for creatives
Many of my clients ask me for help with structuring their week. They feel they are drowning and fire fighting and feel utterly exhausted. The best way to start building structure in your business like that, is again first writing down what you normally have to do each week.
What does each day look like? What time do you get up, what are non-negotiable tasks? In my house, it is getting up at 7.30am, breakfast with the family, then my husband takes the kids to school, and I can start work at 9am. Tuesdays I usually take off and spend on hobbies. Fridays are flexible. Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are my coaching days, on which I have clients and do things like marketing and admin.
Gives your days names: Monday can be content and marketing day, Tuesday client day, Wednesday morning gym and afternoon admin day, etc. If you want to build in time for self-development, allocate a time or day for this. It can be as little as one hour after breakfast on a Tuesday. Or an hour long walk + podcast listening at lunchtime on a Wednesday.
Try to keep it bite-size and simple, so you can achieve these goals.
Setting longer-term goals
While dealing with day-to-day stuff, we often loose sight of our long-term goals. We simply get through the week and get stuff done. But if we aim to grow as entrepreneurs and want to move the needle, we should also write down what we want to achieve in six month, 12 months or five years even. What is your big vision? How much do you want to earn? How much extra free time would you love to have?
It can look something like this:
Six months:
– Grow my Instagram following by 25%
– Increase my income by $1000 a month
– Hire a freelance assistant to help me create content
12 months:
– Create an online course and launch it successfully
– Earning $10k a month from client work and passive income
– Take Fridays off because I am outsourcing my admin
Five years:
– Able to pay off all of my debts
– Put a deposit down on a house
– Earning a steady income and am working on writing my book
Of course, just writing down goals will not do anything. You need to add actions to it. If you want to increase your Instagram following by 25%, HOW will you do this? Behind each goal, you need to put an inspired action. Otherwise it remains a vague dream. To manifest this dream, you got to put the wheels in motion. And these actions should be very practical and tangible. They could be research, meeting with an expert, getting a mentor, investing in better software, and creating a good daily rhythm for yourself.
Tools and automation to help you build structure in your business
Each one of you will have their preferences for tools to keep you on track. I use a google calendar on my phone, that is linked to my scheduling app for clients. A paper notebook for quick to-do-lists and sudden ideas is always on my desk. I also have a whiteboard up for planning larger projects.
Whatever you prefer, there is something out there for you. Think about what your biggest issues are right now in terms of keeping an overview. Perhaps you want a better software system to organise your client work. I invested last year in a coaching platform, and it has really helped me structure my business better. No more dealing with several different apps and documents, but instead a lot more automation.
Automation can really help you keep your cool. What could you automate right now? Emails? Invoicing? Direct debits?
Go through your day-to-day work, and look at where the issues are. What are you spending too much time on that could be done smarter?
Work with me
I work as a business coach for creative entrepreneurs, and I help them transform from overwhelm to feeling in control. I hold them accountable, and together we create a game plan to reach their goals and move forward, one step at the time. Mindset, marketing, focus and taking action, all of these things are part of my programmes.
Interested in finding out more? Book a free call with me this week, and we’ll have an informal chat about your business and how I could help.
