I hope you have been doing well, staying safe and healthy at home as we hit a very delicate time of year for our health during the pandemic.
I know you have heard this so many times already, but it bears repeating that although we have limitations due to the pandemic, it doesn’t mean that December and this holiday season can’t be just as wonderful and merry as always. Things may look different, but the reason for the season is still the same for you if you embrace it.
So, in this month’s installment of my public Entrepreneurial journal entry, I thought I should share about some awesome live events I have scheduled for this month.
December is the time of year when I like to wrap up my projects for the year and do my goal setting for the upcoming year. This year, like years past, I am again hosting my Annual New Year’s Goal Setting + Planning Class, however, this year the class is going to be held exclusively for my Productivity + Planning Master Mind members on this upcoming Saturday, December 5th @ 2PM EDT.
So, if you want to join, get yourself enrolled in the membership- it costs just $22 a month and each month you get an exclusive private class, plus loads activities, inserts, extra content and a private chat with our master mind group as well as myself.
In year’s past the New Year’s Goal Setting Class has cost twice as much to attend, so your investment this year into the membership goes so much further for your productivity and personal development.
The second live event I am hosting this month is my 2021 Planner Setup Party on Saturday December 19th @ 2PM EDT. This event will be a live steam on Youtube FREE to my community where you will follow along as I set up my planner for 2021.
In this live stream I will share how I clean my leather planner, my process for printing and binding my inserts at home, and of course I will walk you through how I am setting my planner up for the new year.
I would love for you to join me for the livestream and set your planner up alongside me. It should be a fun and informative time and of course I’ll be taking Q+A live so it’s a great chance for us to hang out and get your planning questions answered by me.
I’ll be sending out emails for this event the morning of to those on my email list. If you would like to ensure you receive those emails and a direct link to the even, click here!
Well, that is everything I have going on for December!
Like you, I am just hoping to wrap up my year in a nice bow, get in some rest and relaxation and start the new year with a fresh slate.
I would love to hear about your plans for December and how you are preparing for the close of the year. Feel free to leave me a comment and let me know your plans. I do hope to see you inside my Productivity + Planning Master Mind to kick off a fresh year together in January!
What do you do with unused or missed inserts in your planner?
On Saturday I posted a video sharing my thoughts on how to deal with and make the most of unused planner inserts.
If you have been using a planner for any length of time, I am sure you have faced this situation before, where you skipped planning and have some dated inserts that are left empty in your planner.
So, what should we do with them?
First, it’s important to understand that this happens to many of us, that we start a planner, but skip using it sometimes.
It’s nothing to get too bothered over, so if you feel a sense of guilt for not using your planner for a period of time, take a deep breath in, exhale and let that guilt go.
You just need to check in with yourself to determine what the issue was that caused the lack of planning.
Is your planner the culprit? Perhaps its not the right system for your needs.
Or perhaps, you got distracted from planning?
Both are very common situations, but it’s up to you to identify the cause so you can address it and use this information to plan and do better in the future.
For more details on this topic, check out my YouTube channel and this latest video below.
And if you have watched the video or have an opinion on how to deal with unused planner inserts, please leave me a comment and share your thoughts!
Click play above to watch a short walk thru of my Project Breakdown + Management Workbook.
Hello My Charmed Ones!
This month in the Productivity + Planning Master Mind we covered the topic of Project Management with a dedicated master class and workbook intended to help you take a big goal or objective and turn it into manageable daily tasks.
In the workbook, I laid out two key processes:
The first is the process of breaking down your goal into a project plan.
The second is the process of managing your projects to ensure completion.
Both processes are necessary if you want to achieve any goal or objective because you can’t take action without a solid plan, and yet a plan alone does not keep you organized and focused enough to take action.
Planning + Organization = Easy Execution
(Leave me a comment 👇🏼 and let me know which part of the process you struggle with more, or perhaps you struggle with both equally?!)
If you are ready to translate your big complicated goals into strategic daily actions, this class and workbook will give you clarity to tackle even the most overwhelming objectives with ease!
BUT in order to get these awesome and valuable tools, you need to be part of the Productivity + Planning Master Mind with me!
OR send me an email and let me know what’s holding you back from making this small but significant investment in your personal development and success.
I would love to welcome you to the Master Mind where you will be part of a group of like-minded women all learning to plan and organize on their best lives ever, together!
When you do enroll in the Master Mind Membership, you get immediate access to all past content in the group, including master classes, workbooks, inserts and other designs, plus you are set for our upcoming monthly master classes for the duration of your membership enrollment.
I can’t believe Halloween is a few days away and November starts over the weekend. I wish I could say I haven gotten into the Halloween Spirit, but other than decorating my house and listening to Halloween Lofi Playlists on YouTube, I really haven’t done much by way of spooky celebrations.
I, like many people, are still prioritizing lockdown and so this year my fall looks much different than years prior, and perhaps that’s why I am at such a loss for how it is that one of my favorite holidays is nearly here!
I guess I need to make myself some Halloween plans LOL. Maybe this blog post is as good a place as any to start brain dumping some ideas.
Certainly, a Halloween movie marathon seems to be the obvious activity for lockdown. But what movies should I watch? Here are some of my favorites!
Sleepy Hollow with Johnny Depp
The Wolfman starring Benecio del Toro
The Craft (90’s favorite)
Hocus Pocus (classic)
Halloween (I prefer Michael Myers to Freddie or Jason)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (cult classic)
Practical Magic (because we can’t do all scary)
Chilling Tales of Sabrina (Netflix series)
Yea, I’m feeling good about that list, how about you?
Okay, so to wrap up October and this post in a nice little bow and prepare ourselves for November ahead, I have your free downloads for November ready! Another Half Page November Dashboard with 30 Days of Thankfulness Gratitude List on the back and some Thanfulness themed tech wallpapers.
Over the last few weeks and months, I have acquired three more luxury planners and after sharing a sneak peek with my Instagram followers, you asked for me to do an unboxing.
I also get many many questions about how to find luxury planner covers as they are not always easily available online.
So, Saturday I posted a full video on all these topics!
Just a warning…
This video is pretty long and chatty, but I have added timestamps to help you find the information you may be looking for. If you click through to the full video on YouTube you will be able to access the timestamps and the full description of the video where I also left plenty of links to additional resources.
I hope you enjoy this video and if you have any additional questions I missed in the video, leave a comment on the video and I will be glad to help if I can!
ENROLLMENT IS NOW OPEN FOR MY PRODUCTIVITY + PLANNING MASTER MIND MEMBERSHIP GROUP!
You read that right!
A Productivity + Planning Membership dedicated to Functional Planning and Productivity, hosted by yours truly 😉
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Essentially, the Productivity + Planning Master Mind Membership is a private, group coaching community centered around the topics of productivity, functional planning, time management, mindset, and success. Everything I teach and create content around in order to help you get all your big thoughts, plans, dreams and ideas out of your head and onto paper.
The foundation of this Membership experience is the idea that Productivity and Planning aren’t just things you learn about once and then you are set for success the rest of your life. Like many things, Productivity and Planning are a lifelong pursuit where we find the right tools, learn the best strategies and gradually build up the skills that support our ability to plan, act and create the outcomes we want for our lives.
So, if you enjoy my products and content, love my live free master classes and get a ton of value and inspiration from them, this Membership is a way for you and I to go deeper to overcome your specific obstacles and develop the skills you need to achieve whatever success you are looking for in life!
WHAT DO YOU GET?
When you enroll in the Productivity + Planning Membership, each month you get access to some amazing resources hosted within a private membership website and chat group:
✔︎ LIVE MASTER CLASSES: Each month I will host a live Master Class on a new Productivity, Planning or Personal Development topic. During these Master Classes, you will have the opportunity to chat with other attendees and ask me open Q+A to make sure you are learning and integrating the information in a way that makes sense to you. Classes will be held on the first Saturday of the new month at 2pm EDT- so our first class is Saturday November 7th @ 2PM EDT (New York, NY Time Zone)
✔︎ FREE WORKBOOKS + ACTIVITIES: To accompany each Master Class, you will also get access to downloadable class workbooks and materials with additional homework and activities to put the principles you learn into immediate action in your life and planning.
✔︎ A LIBRARY OF EXCLUSIVE PLANNER INSERTS + TOOLS: Each month I will be creating new fun inserts and planner designs to share with you. You will get the first look at my latest designs, get a chance to test my latest products and I’ll share exclusive designs with you that I won’t have available anywhere else.
✔︎ A PRIVATE MEMBERSHIP COMMUNITY: Not only does the Master Mind have its own dedicated membership website where all our downloads and resources are housed, but we will also have our own Private Slack Channel so we can stay in touch via chat throughout the day. I will be sharing extra content on the Slack channel and you can use it to share content as well, chat with your fellow Master Mind members and ask me additional Q+A!
So, I know- that is already a TON OF VALUE packed into one membership, but of course I had to throw in some additional BONUSES!
When you enroll for your membership TODAY, you unlock these 3 value packed bonuses:
🗝 PRODUCTIVITY + PLANNING COURSE: When you join the membership, you get instant access to my 12 Week Productivity + Planning course that will help you learn the essential strategies I teach for Functional Planning and achieving success. This course is packed with 12 video classes, printable worksheets and class materials to help you set goals, make plans, master habits and much more!
🗝 A PRIVATE BOOK CLUB: For years my community has been asking me to start a book club and I am pleased to announce I will be hosting one from within the Master Mind. I’ll be sharing all my favorite books, plus choosing a title each month to read together and share key lessons from so we are continuing our education on productivity and success together! For those of you interested in Metaphysics + Alchemy topics, don’t you worry- I’ve got you covered too!
🗝 WELLNESS SUPPORT GROUP: I don’t know about you, but I have certainly packed on the Quarantine 15 since the pandemic began and I am on a mission to restore my health and wellness to a place that feels good to me. Many of you know, I lost nearly 100lbs back in 2017 using the Keto diet and I would love to share more details of my wellness journey, recipes and meal prep hacks with you inside the Master Mind.
WHAT IS THE INVESTMENT?
So, here is the best part about this whole experience- the price!
I know, I know, that’s usually the hardest part to swallow but in this case, I have priced this experience so competitively because I want this to be an easy YES for anyone who is truly interested in getting the ongoing support, inspiration, encouragement and information to help them achieve their best life.
I know personal development classes and courses can cost in the hundreds.
I know personal development coaching is generally thousands of dollars a year.
BUT, I really want to help as many of the wonderful women in my community as possible see their potential, map out their plans, and get to work achieving them!
So, your investment in this membership experience is just $22 a month!
Now, to be fair, that is my introductory pricing offer. Which means, if you ENROLL NOW you only pay $22 a month for as long as you remain part of the membership.
However, I do intend to raise the price on this membership in the future, so you will want to ACT FAST + SECURE THIS SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY PRICE so you are grandfathered in!
I’m sure right now some of you are excited and ready to get yourself enrolled, and perhaps others of you are interested but have a few more questions first.
So, click the link below to check out the sales page, ready more about this experience and when you are ready to enroll, click any ENROLL or JOIN button on that page to be transferred to my shop to checkout!
If you have any questions of course, I am here to answer those for you! So, shoot me an email or drop me a comment and let me know how I can help you or what key information I have missed in this post!
Talk soon and I can’t wait to see you inside our private membership community for some dedicated productivity and planning support!
If you are on my email list, you received an email from me on Sunday with a whole collection of October seasonal freebies to help you get organized and motivated for this spooky time of year!
The collection includes 2 NEW designs, a Spooky Dashboard and my new 1/2 Page Monthly Dashboard with 31 Things To Do in October task list.
You’ll also get access to 2 complete sets of October tech wallpapers that you can use to get your smartphone, tablet and computer dressed up for some added seasonal inspiration.
In today’s video I am doing a part 2 to my original video 10 Ways to Personalize Your Planner (from November 2014). That video has received 700,000+ views and when I asked on Instagram (follow me @MissTrenchcoat) you said you wanted an update so this is it! This time around I decided to focus on simple, elegant personalizations you can use in your planner without needing stickers or washi tape. I hope you enjoy these ideas and use this inspiration in your own way within your planner! I look forward to hearing about your favorite idea in the comments so let me know which you enjoyed the most!
I hope you had a wonderful and productive month of August. My month was pretty successfulwith 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!
You know what that means? I have a new free printable insert to share with you!
This months freebie is not just an insert, but a productivity strategy I like to use as often as I can to ensure I am completely on top of my task management.
It’s the Power Hour!
How to Perform a Power Hour
A Power Hour is a dedicated block of time where we intentionally work on completing tasks that we have been putting off. Maybe these are tasks that have fallen through the cracks of our weekly schedule, they could be tasks that we end up deferring day over day because of higher priorities, or they’re tasks that for one reason or another we have been avoiding.
Whatever the reason, if these tasks need to get done, we have to focus and knock them out. The Power Hour concept is one that can encourage us to get the work done by setting a block of time that makes it easier to get started.
Step One: Set a block of time for your Power Hour where you can work uninterrupted.
Step Two: Compile a list of tasks to work on during the time block.
Step Three: Set a timer and get to work! Often setting a timer ignites a sense of focus and intention that we don’t normally have otherwise.
Feel free to perform this Power Hour strategy as often as necessary to stay focused and productive!
And don’t forget to download the FREE Power Hour Insert to help you keep this entire process organized for you!
And of course, if there is anything you need from me, any questions you have for dealing with your productivity or life during this challenging time, please let me know how I can support you and bring you the solutions or resources to make things a little easier for you!
