5 Tips to Stay Organized as an Entrepreneur

Hey there hi there! I’m going to do my best to keep my posts as short and sweet as possible. One thing that really grinds my gears is when I have to sift through novels to get to the reason I clicked on the link in the first place! 

That being said, I want to find the balance between value and connection. I don’t want to just throw a list up here, and go on with my day – I want to be genuine, helpful, and share what I’ve learned through actual trial and error (sometimes lots of error). 

Please leave a comment or send me a message if there’s something you’d like to see, and a “follow” will go a long way in helping to grow my audience! 

Now I present to you – the top 5 tips I’ve learned to use as an entrepreneur to stay organized and on top of my workload! 

1. Declutter your workspace

At the end of every day I clean up my workspace. This means I clear out any drink containers, snack trash, and crumpled up notes and either throw it away or load it into the dishwasher. I pick up all my pens, highlighters and blue light glasses, and put them where they belong. I also close my planner and put it back in its place (after jotting down all the things for the next day). This means I will come to a nice clean, organized space the next morning – ready to take on the day! 

2. Time block your tasks

Time blocking is my hero! With juggling multiple clients every week, its helpful to take my planner and literally draw blocks on the day for the clients I’m focusing on that day. Not only do I block client work time, but I also block time for being active (walks with Woods, the gym), meal times, and breaks for my eyeballs since I stare at a screen all day. 

3. Eat the frog early

I only learned this term in my last job, and I love it! There’s always that one (at least) big, annoying, dreaded task that needs to be done but you really don’t want to do it so you procrastinate and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and more annoying. Sound familiar? Well, its called a FROG! My tip for this is to suck it up and take care of it early (either in the day or in the timeline of that frog). Its not fun, we don’t want to do it, but once its done we feel sooo much better! So, do it early. 

4. Follow the two-minute rule

Eating the frog aside – I follow the two-minute rule! If a task can be done in two minutes or less I do it immediately. This allows me to cross things off my to-do list quickly (and I LOVE crossing things off my list), and keeps some things from turning into frogs down the road. Keep in mind the time blocking – I focus on that client during that time blocked out. I don’t go doing tasks all willy nilly for everyone while I should be focusing completely on that client. 

5. Leverage technology tools

This is one I’m still dabbling in. There are a few tools I’ve invested in so far that have stuck with me, and I’m really excited to learn all the ins and outs of them! None of these are a paid add or anything – I just like them and want to share. 

1. Dubsado! Dubsado is a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool that I use to house everything about my clients, the projects I’m working on, my income/expenses, a time tracker (which tracks and saves that time to the invoice for the designated client) and its connected to Square so I’m able to send out invoices and receive payments. I also customize and send out my contracts and proposals. This platform costs me $40/month to use, and they even have a certification program! After using the platform for 18 months I can take a test to become certified with them, and they will promote me to new customers as someone who can help setup the platform for them. It could be pretty cool! 
2. Planoly! I use Planoly to schedule out my social media posts. This tool is absolutely wonderful, and it is totally on me that I haven’t been utilizing it as much as I should. Its currently connected to my Instagram which pushes to my Facebook page, and I’m ok with this for now. Down the road I may also add Pinterest and LinkedIn. This tool is $16/month for the plan that fits what I need currently.
3. Chat GPT – Now this is a new one. Let me be VERY clear here – I do NOT use this for anything related to my clients. Anything I do for them is my own. I HAVE used it for writing some of my Instagram captions, and for helping me to create my content calendar. This is insane, and if you want more info on this I’d be more than happy to chat about it! There’s so much to learn and I’m excited to dive in. This tool is free. 

I think this is a lot of information so I’m going to stop there. I could go on and on about being organized and finding new ways to be productive, but really its different for everyone! Some habits and tools that work for me won’t work for others, and that’s perfectly ok. 

What is your favorite habit or tool for productivity and organization? Leave a comment or send me a message!