Mine is a creative soul. I have loads of thoughts and ideas that pop into my head. I love pretty supplies (office supplies, scrapbook supplies – I have tons). I want to follow through on all those thoughts, though. I want to be a photographer planning for success. In fact, this was one of my goals for 2022.
Photographer Planning for Success
So I’ve spent some time in the last few months making lists, and purging supplies and organizing my thoughts to plan for that success that I knew I wanted to achieve. I forced myself to narrow my planning to three areas of focus:
- Workspace and Office Area
- At-A-Glance Planning
- On-the-Go and Social Media Outline
Workspace and Office Area
I am so unbelievably excited about my workspace and office area. Scrapbooking is an integral part of my creative process, and has been for more than two decades. My collection of albums and supplies has grown over the years to be massive. And I’m not sorry. 😉
But my scrapbook room is also my office. And my editing space. And my planning space. So my loft in-home office needed to be arranged in such a way that I could accomplish all of those goals in the same space.
And it does! I utilized some existing pieces of furniture, but changed them to perform new tasks. I made the obligatory trip to IKEA for some new shelves. I’ve made a conscious effort to keep my desk space cleared of clutter. My craft and scrapbook supplies are meticulously organized by theme, type and color, so I can find exactly what I’m looking for.
I love this space so much.
At-a-Glance Planning
For the next area of focus, I turned for assistance to my daughter. She custom designed a wall calendar for me that is EXACTLY what I envisioned for my look-ahead planning. Keep an eye out. She’ll be opening an Etsy store this fall/winter and she’ll be taking custom orders for small businesses.
I wanted a six-month calendar rather than a quarterly look-ahead. I also wanted a weekly snapshot and a To-Do list that I could keep all together. And wow, did she deliver!
She designed my calendar for me, and I had it printed at Staples as a 24×36 blueprint poster. We framed the poster with a Michael’s poster frame and hung it up lickety-split. This is perfect, because I can use a dry-erase marker right on the glass, and reuse my calendar again and again.
On-the-Go and Social Media Outline
My last area of focus to be a true photographer planning for success is my “Carry It With Me” planner. This is where I keep up with my social media planning, and also my Bullet Journal calendar. I like my wall calendar for the half-year look ahead. But I keep my bullet journal with me so I can schedule senior sessions as soon as calls come in.
The Bullet Journal also serves as a creative outlet, which makes me happy! It lets me keep up with all my lists, jot down ideas for reels and Instagram posts, and know where I’m supposed to be when.
In a day and age where much of our organization is done electronically, I still love the old-fashioned pen-to-paper format. I feel so accomplished when I mark something off my list, don’t you?
Don’t get me wrong. There are a lot of online organizational apps that help me tremendously (I’m looking at you, Canva and Planoly). But I love my physical wall calendar. And I love my creative Bullet Journal.
And now I’ve reached my 2022 goal of being organized. Just in time for senior season.
How About You?
So what organizational tips help keep you sane? Drop me a comment below and share the wisdom!
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