Ask any of my employees, co-workers, or my business partner. Coordination is my game and organization is the name.
Being a publicist/model/business owner/fitness junkie/family girl (which includes a 15 year old little sister who recently became a boy fanatic) sure keeps my hands full. I’m sharing 6 of my secrets with you on how I juggle my schedule, AND still have time fit in 7 hours of sleep [almost] every night!
1.) Be aware of how much time you spending planning the plan:
People ask me all the time, “how do you do it?” Well for one thing, I don’t have time to think about how it happens. I just get it done. Which brings me to my first point, don’t spend more time planning your plan than actually getting things done.
2.) DON’T plan out your entire schedule for the day:
Ever try this before? Scheduling out your entire day so that everything you need to get done happens? How did that work out for you? Yep, we’ve all been there. In theory, this sounds great, but in reality, it never works out the way we want it to. We generally have a tendency to underestimate the amount of time it takes complete a task, even if similar tasks have over-ran in the past. This is called “The Planning Fallacy” – here’s my big bad psych background coming out. The solution: prioritize what you need to get done, but don’t schedule out every minute of your day. This will avoid frustration later when the schedule doesn’t work out the way you planned. Plus, this will reduce your “planning out the plan” time as mentioned above!
3.) Buy a BIG BIG planner:
No, one of those little ones that fits in your pocket will not do. Go with the one that’s the size of a notebook. You’re going to need it. Next step – write down everything. In the moment, when someone reminds you to send that important email to a client, of course you’re certain you won’t forget. But then, life happens and you don’t make it back to your inbox until a few hours later and by that time you’ve already got 83 new emails to respond to. You will thank yourself later. I carry my planner around at all times. I never leave the house without it. No app is sufficient enough to make a PR girl’s calendar visually appealing. While I do utilize Google Calendar so that I can share my schedule with co-workers, this is just as a back up. Plus, I always make sure both calendars line up, which helps to avoid any scheduling mistakes. Check out this adorable Sugar Paper planner I just picked up at Target the other day! I’m also a huge fan of these Fashion Planners
too!
4.) Meet your new best friend – Google Drive:
Google Drive is hands down the best method of keeping things organized among multiple people. Task outlines, client reports, contact spreadsheets and more. My favorite is utilizing it for staff task outlines. I love that I can keep a running list of tasks for an employee that we can both update. That way, I can add tasks as needed without bombarding their inbox more than usual.
5.) Color coordinate your life:
Your planner, your calendar, Google Drive, all of it – color coordinate it. In my planner, I use the colors to dictate categories – pink is events and tasks for work, purple is for modeling, green is for personal happenings, orange is medical/doctor appointments, red is for finances, etc. That way, everything is visually laid out. If you just use the same old black pen, tasks and due dates will get lost in the sea of to-dos. I always keep a pouch of colorful PaperMate Profile Pens in my Thirty-One zipper pouch in my bag!
6.) Make daily to-do lists:
There is something to be said about the sense of accomplishment you get when you cross an item off your to-do list! I always have a million tasks bouncing around in my head all the time, but when I physically write them on my to-do list, they go out of my head and onto the paper so that I can focus on other things. I love these lined pads by Post-it® Notes. I stick to-do lists right in my planner so everything is in one place.
Now, if I could only get my closet as organized as my professional life I would be set!
I’d love to hear your organization tips below! I’ll tweet my favorites! <3
