Entrepreneurial: How I’ve been Working Smarter, Not Harder

Hello My Charmed Ones!

I hope you had a wonderful and productive month of August. My month was pretty successful  with the implementation of my new content schedule that I outlined for you in last months installment of this series. So, I wanted to give you a recap of how the past month has gone for me, the results I’ve seen from just a few weeks of work, and how I really feel like I’ve been embodying the concept of working smarter, not harder through this process.

My New Content Posting Schedule 

To give you a recap of my new posting schedule, I am now publishing content every day of the week onto one of my platforms. 

MWF I post to Instagram, T/Th I post to my blog, Sat is a YouTube Video and Sun is an email to my list.

So, I’ve been creating a lot of content, but it honestly has been such a breeze for me because I have been implementing some great productivity strategy for time and task management.

Time and Task Management Strategies I’ve been Using

First, in terms of the task management aspect of this, all of my content ideas are preplanned as part of my editorial calendar, so I always know what I am creating for each piece of content. Yes, I have made a few last minute changes to content, but overall, knowing exactly what I am posting on what platform on which day is such a time and energy saver. Even if I am low on time, there is no decision fatigue that I face for my content, I just need to do what I already planned to do- pretty easy!

Another task and time management strategy I have been relying on heavily for the last month is batching my work. When I film videos for youtube, for instance, I film two in one day, which means I only have to film every other week, instead of weekly. I don’t consider filming to be difficult work overall, but batching my filming saves so much time because much of my time on filming days is literally the setup. Doing my hair and makeup, getting my camera equipment set up, getting the dogs settled so I can actually film without background barking. All that takes time and to only have to go through that process every other week is a major time and energy saver. Then of course I also edit and upload my videos together and schedule everything to go live on the proper days which helps me to get ahead on my work. 

I also batch other work as well. I always write my blog posts for a week together on the same day, and at this point I am writing for a week ahead so everything is scheduled and ready to go.

The only content I end up posting in real time are my Instagram posts because I can’t autoschedule those. Of course, I do write most of those captions and decide on the photo or video ahead of time to make it all easy for me. I have been using the Apple Notes app on my MacBook/iPhone to organize the elements of my Instagram posts so I have all the pieces on hand when I am ready to publish. 

My weekly email as well is always written a few days ahead of time and scheduled. I usually write those on Friday as my last work task for the week which has been working out very well. 

Sticking to My Daily Top 3 Tasks

The final time and task management strategy I have been sticking to very well over the past month is the idea of my Top 3. In July with the launch of the 2021 Planner insert collection, I switched my weekly view in my planner to week on one page as opposed to the week on two pages I had been using all year. 

The major difference with these inserts is that they are much more focused on prioritizing your top 3 list, which is a strategy I often talk about where you literally list the three things you absolutely need to focus on for the day. The way I work and the way I plan, I don’t normally write down each and every task I have to complete in a day, instead I like to focus on writing down just the things I know are super important, business related or things I just need to stick to. Like if I could only accomplish three things very well today, what would they be? Nothing else matters as much as these three tasks. 

So, in order to avoid overwhelm and stay as focused as possible with this new content schedule, as well as my other work for the month, I have been sticking to the top 3 list each day as a place to guide my energy and focus. I try to knock out the top 3 as quickly as possible because I know if I just get those things done, I am golden. I have nothing to worry about, little things can be forgotten but these three must be done. 

I’ve also gotten even better at prioritization because of this practice because I do believe prioritization is a skill that you need to develop to understand what is truly important to get done for the day and what just seems urgent. 

The Results I’ve Seen

Now, you might not think that posting on a consistent schedule for just a few weeks would have such a noticeable impact so quickly, but I have already been able to see some significant results. 

✔︎ My subscriptions on Youtube are up 25% from prior month.

✔︎ My Instagram follower count is up about 100 and I’m getting more views on my IG Stories than usual.

✔︎ I’ve been receiving more replies to my emails.

✔︎ I’ve been receiving much more engagement from my audience across platforms. 

✔︎ The Charmed Shop is getting more consistent daily sales.

Honestly, it’s those last three that are the most important to me. I don’t really give too much concern over follower numbers as long as I am growing that’s good. I realize I am in a very privileged position that I already have a sizable audience online. At least my audience and my list are a size I am very proud of and help support my business in a way that I feel good about. The size of my audience, however, is also likely why I have had such great results in such a quick period of time. I’m not building an audience from scratch, I am just re-engaging them with my content across my platforms. 

I’m eager to see how my community starts reengaging with me more and more over the coming months, especially on Instagram where I have been so stagnant for so long because I have just not been posting good content there. I know it’s easy for creators, influencers and business owners to blame a platform or an algorithm for why their accounts aren’t growing or engaged, but I know the truth is usually that the account itself is the problem. I know in my example that is true for sure. I took a big break from Instagram (several years…oops) so I have only myself to blame for low engagement. Hopefully, I’ll be able to revive my account through interesting, valuable and eye catching content and prove that it’s not the platform itself that’s the problem. 

So, that is how I have been working smarter, not harder in August getting my new content schedule underway. Of course, I look forward to September being more of the same, more content, more engagement, more sales, more of me creating a valuable and popular business that serves my customers and audience well!

I hope you found this post to be informative and enlightening. I would love to know your thoughts on my new content schedule, so please share with me in the comments!

Wishing you a productive and successful month ahead!

xoxo,