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Professional Organizers Need a Schedule Too by Maria Gracia I interview dozens of professional organizers, and I always ask the question, 'Describe your typical workday.' And I have to tell you that I'm totally amazed how many people respond with answers like, 'No day is really typical' or 'every day is completely different.' This is such an interesting response, because just as the clients of professional organizers need organized, consistent schedules to achieve peak performance, so does the professional organizer. Now, this response may be a bit misleading. Perhaps professional organizers think that people will see them as less creative, or less interesting, if they say their day is pretty typical. So, they say their day isn't really typical, even if it is. On the other hand, perhaps the schedules of these organizers truly aren't typical at all, which in most cases, can be a huge problem. If concentrated, focused, and consistent time isn't spent on important activities, such as marketing for instance, the chances for growth are then greatly diminished. My weekly work schedule is VERY typical, and my business consistently grows each week. When I was doing a lot of hands-on client projects, more of my time was spent doing that, and less time writing. Now that my business is mostly Web-based, I spend a good deal of time writing, and less time doing personalized client projects. As of now, this is what my schedule looks like almost every single week of the year. My typical business day starts at 8:30am and ends at around 5:30pm. On a daily basis, I check and respond to all of my e-mail, sort through and respond to all of my regular mail, transfer all of my Web site product orders to my fulfillment service for shipment, answer any business calls, and do any light administrative work like filing or making labels. I also take a 60-90 minute lunch and run any quick errands, during this time. Then, each day of the week has its own theme. 1) MONDAYS - MARKETING. I invest most of my time on Mondays and Tuesdays to marketing projects. Yes, sometimes the marketing projects vary, but the bottom line is that it's all marketing. I send out press releases, submit articles to e-zines and print magazines, make media contacts (radio stations, newspapers, etc.), respond to questions on my discussion forum, etc. etc. 2) TUESDAYS - PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT. On Tuesdays, I spend my time creating new products and/or updating current products, which I sell on my Web site and in my presentations. 3) WEDNESDAYS - CLIENT CONSULTATIONS AND ADMINISTRATIVE. Wednesday mornings are spent doing client consultations, training sessions, etc. Then, the afternoons are spent on anything administrative that needs to be done, such as getting my print newsletters ready for mailing, or updating my Web site, or running business errands. 4) THURSDAYS - WRITING. I do all of my writing on Thursdays. I write my newsletters, articles, business correspondence and e-mail consultations. 5) FRIDAYS - BUSINESS READING AND RESEARCH. I use Fridays to do my business reading and research. This gives me the opportunity to think about my marketing strategies, to determine if there's something available that could make my life easier, to learn something new, to mull over new ideas, and so on. 6) WEEKENDS - REPORTS. I basically keep my weekends entirely free. The only thing I do is spend 15 minutes each Sunday gathering my weekly numbers from my Web site (unique visitors to my Web pages), my sales numbers, the number of referrals I got, the number of people who requested my recent e-course, etc. With these numbers I can easily be sure that everything is staying on track and that I'm achieving my goals. I can also immediately see what needs to be improved. Occasionally, this schedule will vary. For instance, I have a 6:00am radio interview scheduled for next week on a Wednesday, and a presentation at a bookstore the following week at noon on Friday. But most of my schedule remains consistent, with some slight variations here and there. And I'm not embarrassed to say it's 'typical.' In fact, I'm so glad it is. This way, I pretty much know what results I can expect each week, rather than it being a crap shoot. Perhaps you might consider adapting a similar schedule for your business. Click to Return to Article Index 
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