I recently had one of those weeks when I had a lot on my plate. My business is growing rapidly and getting a lot of attention. While this is awesome, I’m realizing I need help better organizing my schedule for this busy time. If you’re also experiencing this in your own life, it’s likely you need to tips to organize your schedule too.
On having good problems
When your business is booming and you’re super busy, the stress you experience is actually a good problem to have. As Grant Cardone says, you want new problems that come from upleveling, not the same ones.
One such problem is when you have so much on your plate that you need help. Another good problem is when you need to start saying no to things because you’re too busy. And yet another good problem is when you have a really busy week that, while it may be exhausting, ends in good results for your business.
In essence, having problems isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s annoying, but it’s not crippling. If we can focus on that, then we can find solutions such as how to better organize your schedule. Here are some of my tips based on a few weeks of craziness.
Put everything on your calendar.
The first place to start to organize your schedule is to use a calendar. As I often joke, if something isn’t on my calendar it doesn’t exist. This is a lesson I recently learned the hard way when I accidentally triple booked myself because I didn’t see things on the calendar.
Rather than canceling or rescheduling, I found a way to meet all of my commitments that day. Even though it worked out, it was rough. I can avoid this in the future by making sure to always make sure that either my team or myself put everything on my calendar ahead of time.
Expand your own limitations.
The previous paragraph explains how I found a way to meet all my commitments when I goofed up my calendar. This is an exercise in expanding my own limitations.
Now, why am I bringing this up?
We live in a society that tends to focus a lot on a balance and self-care. While these things are important, we’re emphasizing it way too much. The truth is we can probably do more in 24 hours than we give ourselves credit for. I know I personally used to use balance as an excuse to not do things. Just saying.
That being said, how does this help you organize your calendar? In my case, it looks like scheduling out a few things weeks out in advance. For example, I have challenged myself to complete podcast episodes for the rest of the year before July. This means I’ll be working a little harder, but I know I can do it. As a result, I need to find where to put this on my calendar. I chose Mondays and I’m also doing about three guest interviews per Monday to meet my goals.
Combine tasks.
The next step in being able to organize your schedule during a busy week is to combine tasks. For example, I spend some time each week doing sales.
Well, who says sales needs to look a specific way? The truth is sales opportunities come up all the time.
For example, I was recently interviewing someone for my podcast and afterward we started talking about where she was struggling in her business. She is now a consulting client of mine.
Or, I had a speaking gig. I decided to use that as sales opportunity as well by making sure I book consults. On top of that, I got the information for the PR department of where the event was being held so I could pitch them for brand ambassadorship.
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Finally, I was interviewing someone for an article for a client and decided to ask them something unrelated when I’d finished the questions. That’s because I knew they could answer something about a concern I had and I already had them on the phone.
As you can see, I combine stuff all the time. If I see an opportunity I just grab it. It’s gotten to the point where it’s completely second nature.
Believe it or not, I see a lot of people who don’t even think of doing this. Instead, they convolute the sales process and their schedule as a result. Usually, because they feel bad about it or think it’s inappropriate.
Well, you’re just wasting money and time. I’m of the belief of seizing opportunities when they show up, which is not always in the way you expected them to. In my book, the best way to organize your schedule is to be efficient with making money.
Ask for help.
I admit that when I experienced a crazy week I crashed by the end of it. I was dropping the ball and losing sleep, which is the exact opposite of being able to organize your schedule.
Because I saw this coming, I set up an interview with an influencer agent who does business management. The idea is she will come in to help streamline processes while also doing some sales for influencer work.
This will be a huge help for me because right now I am my only salesperson for those kinds of contracts. I’m better off leaving it to someone whose sole purpose is to secure those contracts so I can focus on the products I’m better at selling.
So the next step to organize your schedule is to find help. So many solopreneurs just don’t do it and that’s why they stay small. It’s also why they burn out.
Start saying no.
The fastest way to organize your schedule is to stop overcommitting in the first place. I know this sounds contradictory considering I talk about expanding your limits in another section. Let me explain. When I expand my limits, I do it for the things I know will lead to money in the bank. I won’t commit to things that don’t lead to money unless I truly have the spare time.
I talk about saying no all the time, but it’s because I truly believe is the best way to organize your schedule. The same week that I had all these commitments on the books, I was approached to partake in a social media chat.
Knowing how booked I already was, I wasn’t going to go out of my way to do it unless it paid good money. So I responded to the request by saying that qualifies as brand ambassadorship and attached my rates.
They said they didn’t pay, so I rejected the invitation. One less thing for me to worry about. And it’s a good thing I did too because the same day I was supposed to do that I got a call from a huge radio station in New York. That, I made the time for because it was a lot of visibility and a major media credential for my business.
Final Thoughts
The ability to organize your schedule during the crazy times is paramount. I want to end it by saying sometimes you need to just step up to the plate. Don’t let the overwhelm get to you, just like I didn’t.