Side Thought: Time Management Advice

One of the hardest things for me has always been time management, so my advice, give yourself time for trial and error, for procrastination if you know you do that. Set deadlines for yourself; write these deadlines down on a calendar or sheet and place it somewhere you can see it staring you in the face. Keep in mind everything that usually affects your working habits, family, friends, job, TV shows, laziness, etc. You don’t have to cut these things out of your life, just down a little, and work with them instead of around them.

Personally, I’m a huge TV fan and I only get to hangout with family and friends on the weekends, plus my part-time job and the freelance work I do when I get it. And, did I mention I’m a huge procrastinator.

So, to combat this I tend to work out blocks of TV time for only the must see prime time shows Heroes, Gilmore Girls (I miss you), Smallville, the list goes on, I give myself 3 hours or less a night. And I love the fact, that now you can watch a lot of shows online so, now I can work during a show I like and watch it later when I have free-time or need a brain break, plus you get fewer commercial breaks. And, I hate reruns so I have a lot more time in the off season. All this, leaves me with time before my shows and time after my shows to work.

To deal with family and friends, I also block out time the best I can; I give at least one day of the weekend to visiting people. Which day depends on how much and when the work needs to be done by. I try to figure this out by Thursday night. If, I’m leaving town for the weekend, I tend to take work with me and work it in when I can. I didn’t stress on not getting everything done on these trips, just more than I would if I hadn’t taken it with me. So, when everyone else is just watching TV or doing there own thing, I get in a little work. When it comes to meeting deadlines if I have to miss an outing with my family or friends, then I just miss that out. The best advice I can give about making time for family and friends is to just plan it into your schedule, make the plans for dinner and a movie 1-3 weeks in advance, keep remaining yourself of said plans as much a possible, that way your working towards dinner and a movie and not dropping everything to go out to dinner and a movie.

And, if you are just lazy, then remember that you are, if you need something done by Monday than tell yourself that it’s due Sunday. If you know that something takes an hour or so for you to do it, then give yourself 2-3 hours to do it. If a client/customer ask for something by the 15th tell them you will try, but it might be the 16th or 17th before you have it done. If you are a big procrastinator then give yourself time to procrastinate. It also helps to do the project is parts, a little now, a little later, that way it slowly gets done, something is always better than nothing.

Starting a Business - What I've Learned...Part Two

The Second thing, I did was build from my talent, I’m an artist, a designer by nature, it’s the only thing that can give me a headache and still make me happy. So, to make life easier, I designed everything having to do with Buddy-Girl Greetings, the products, the flyers, the website, the catalog, etc. If you already know how to do something and you do it well, than do that before you worry about the things you can’t do. This way you have more time to worry/learn about the things you don’t know.

Something Random: Potential?

Recently, I was asked how do I know, when I’m not living up to my potential?

My reply, I’m not happy. I’m not talking in terms of my dog just die, I’m not happy. I’m talking about an overall happiness, that my life feels right, feels as if it’s going in the right direction. When that happens I’m usually working towards something I want using my potential to get what I want out of life. It doesn’t matter what you want or where you want to go in life, it doesn’t have to big; it just has to be something. Even when nothing in your life is going right and you have little control, if you focus on something big or small and work towards getting it you’d be amazed at how the other stuff in your life, that you thought you had no control over begins to shape up.

Starting a Business - What I've Learned...Part One

When I decided to start my own Greeting Card business 2 years ago, I had only a vague clue on what to do and what not to do. And, for me going slow was probably 1 of the 2 best moves I’ve made the other being, starting small.

Like most people who want to start a business, I had very little business knowledge and even littler start up capital. But, I did have card production skills, some marketing/design skill, research/networking knowledge, a part-time job with flexible hours, and an iron will to make my dream come true.

The first thing I did once I decided to start my own greeting card business was tell everyone I knewn of my plans and get all the feedback I could. I learned that the more people I told about things/ideas concerning Buddy-Girl Greetings the more likely those things/ideas were to happen. People where excite for me and I didn't want to disappoint them, I didn't want to have someone asked me, "what happen to the greeting card business you wanted to start?" and me having to say, "yeah, it didn't happen." I didn't want to have to tell anyone that I failed at my dream. Therefore, I told any and everyone, making failure not an option. Beside, everyone knows that word-of-mouth is the best FREE advertising you can get and the more you talk about your business to people the more likely someone else is going to talk about your business.