How to Create Workflows to Simplify Your Life

Whenever I speak to a new client, I talk about workflows. Here are a few questions I commonly ask:

• What’s your current workflow for this?

• Do you have a workflow for your social media approval process?

• What would your ideal workflow be for this item?

Workflow is a mouthy word and, to be completely honest, it’s not the best word in the world. It sounds complicated. It sounds jargon-y. It sounds kind of terrible.

That being said, workflows are one of the best ways to keep your small business running smoothly, especially if you offer a service-based product.

About 6 months ago, I started trying to keep track of all my different workflows: the processes I used in my business and my day-to-day life to keep things running smoothly. Workflow is a fancy word for “this is what I do, what I use to do it, and why.” That’s it! That’s literally all a workflow is!

But you’d be surprised at how writing down your existing workflows, and working on documenting new ones as you add services or products to your business, can improve your time management and efficiency.

Here are a few of my top tips for creating workflows—and a few examples.

1. Pick a Place to Save Everything.

Choose one platform to keep all your process and workflow documents. This could be Notion, or Google Docs, or the Notes app on your phone. No matter what, keep all your notes in one specific place so you can tweak them when things change (like when you find a better tool for scheduling) and refer to them if you need to train someone on how to do it.

2. Pick a Format That Works for You

I personally like flowcharts best for my workflows—but some people prefer step-by-step outlines, numbers, or just sketches or notes. Whatever works for you, stick to that format. If you find it isn’t working (or you find a better method), don’t be afraid to switch. Just make sure you switch everything to the new method.

3. Focus on Efficiency

Part of the beauty of workflows is always knowing what comes next when you’re working on something. If you a service-based business, then being able to send a client-facing document that outlines the process you’ll follow for them is huge in terms of customer service. Making these documents (or systems) as efficient as possible, and keeping them organized, will help you be more efficient.

That being said, when creating workflows, focus only on the bare minimum steps. If you’re like me, you sometimes get caught up in the little things. For example, some of my social media clients prefer a week-by-week approval system; others prefer to have all their social media done in bulk for the month. That means, those two workflows will be different in terms of timing—but not in how I actually plan for that content, since I plan each month at a time. For the sake of efficiency, I keep my “social media strategy and content development” workflow simple: just the steps I follow, regardless of the time period it occurs in.

4. Use Workflows to Stay Focused

I’m easily distracted and I get very excited about new tools. This can really derail my work day if I’m not careful; having a workflow that I’m familiar with and I know to follow every single time for best results (and maximum efficiency!) helps me cut down on some of that distraction. It also really helps my to do list; instead of having one huge, bulk item (like “social media for X client!”), I know what steps it separates out to and can schedule them through the month appropriately.

Some Example Workflows

Need some examples? No worries. Here are a few basic examples of my workflows that I use most often.

The best thing about workflows is that I can easily give them to anyone to let them know my process or ask for help with something. Maybe not with meal planning, but if I were to ever hire a VA or fellow freelancer to help with my clients, the social media workflow would help me save time. These are just short summaries; my full workflows tend to have a flowchart set up, with notes and more info, like where I pull content ideas from, how long it typically takes me to write content for a month (or for blog posts), and more.

How to Create Workflows

Like I said, pick a format that works for you. Then, when you’re working on a project (such as creating something for your store, providing a service to a client, or whatever), jot down the steps as you work, including the tools you use and any notes. Then, work on putting those notes into the format of your choice, streamlining the information.

Once you have your workflow in a format and form that you like, work on creating a client-facing version, if you want; this can help keep your clients organized and aware of your process, as well as when to expect things. (This will also help you set deadlines and keep expectations clear!)

Workflows are a simple organizational step to help you be more efficient in many different parts of your life. I hope you found this blog post helpful! Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

The 2 Biggest Mistakes I Made in My First Year of Freelance

Running your own business is hard. Especially when your business is service-based. It would be a whole lot easier if I sold candles or something similar: a single purchase, a relationship formed only if both parties want it to continue.

For service-based businesses, the relationship is the point. And with a business that is predicated on relationships, on managing expectations, things can get really challenging.

This isn’t to say that running one type of business is easier than another. There are things that are super challenging about both, obviously. But sometimes, for me, there are times where I wish I could just ship a physical product and call it done!

Unfortunately for me, I don’t make a physical product. I’ve been super lucky to have a really great first 8ish months of working for myself exclusively—there haven’t been any big issues. However, over the last year, I’ve definitely been able to see the mistakes I’ve made clearly. I wanted to share these as I think, for everyone who works for themselves running their own business, they are things to look out for.

1. Not Setting Clear Expectations with Clients (or, Ignoring Very, Very Red Flags)

If you work in a service-based business, eventually you’re going to come across a client who doesn’t know what they want. They know sort of what you do, they know they need to hire you, but they don’t have any idea what any of this means. They might be micromanage-y about it; they might be standoffish about it; but either way, you’re never going to be able to meet their expectations because they don’t know what they are. For you, this creates a situation where the target is always moving, you aren’t able to get what you need, and, especially if you’re in the early part of your career, you don’t really know how to deal with them.

I have had 2 clients like this so far. Both of them had red flags from the very beginning. With these kind of clients, I often find myself falling into the same cycle:

• They ask me to do something that is outside the scope of my contract with them.

• I’m a pushover, so I start doing that work. I communicate with them a new need (such as a login, payment information for a new tool, etc.)

• They do not respond to my emails.

• I think, “I’m an adult. I don’t need to chase my clients when they don’t respond.”

• I send a follow up email.

• They don’t respond.

• A week goes by and they ask me what’s wrong with their website, why haven’t I done the work they asked for, they don’t understand what’s going on, etc.

I end up feeling gaslit by the end of it—am I the one being flaky? Am I the one not doing what I’m supposed to do? And for both of these clients, I sensed a red flag from the very beginning; I suspected that they didn’t know what they want and got the vibe that they would ask for more work from me than what was in the contract. (Such as asking things like “Oh, you do SEO writing too, not just VA work? That’s good to know!” is usually a sign that they’re going to try to get me to redo their website.)

What did I learn from this mistake? Set expectations at the beginning. Here’s a good script I write for myself:

• “So, from my understanding, you’re asking for [#] hours a week of [task-based work]. While I do provide other services, at this time, that is outside the scope of this contract. I understand that your goals are X, Y, and Z. To help meet these goals, I’ll send check up emails on Monday morning.”

That’s just a brief script—I might include more, as well as an email summary that includes a write up of what I’ll be doing in the hours I have dedicated to that client. I also keep my expectations really clear: I am not an employee and I won’t act like one. If an urgent task comes up, I will do my best to tackle it right then and there—but most likely, I will have to work it into my schedule. Making these expectations clear—that I am not their babysitter or manager, but rather an expert in my field they are hiring to take over—is a huge aspect of my on-boarding now. Live and learn, y’all.

2. Not Invoicing My Clients for All the Time I Spent on Their Projects

“Well, I spent 3 hours working on that due to technological issues, but I feel bad that it took so long, so I’ll invoice for 1.5 hours instead,” I said about literally every project with literally every client for the first 6 months of freelancing.

Not only does this cheat your clients—they think you’re doing a ton of work efficiently in half the time, giving them a false sense of how long projects take—it cheats you. You didn’t spend 1.5 hours on that—you spent 3 of your hours (out of 24 in a day, of which hopefully you spend like 10 or so sleeping!) on it. And you deserve to get paid for those 3 hours, even if it took you longer than you thought it should, even if you feel bad about it.

Which, note to self, why do I feel bad about invoicing my clients? They hired me! They’re paying me! That’s what I’m here for!

What did I learn from this mistake? This was a huge mistake I made that doesn’t really have any impact on the work I did or the relationship I built. But it did effect how I saw my work over time, it impacted me financially (obviously spending 12 hours a day working and invoicing for half of it and then wondering why my invoices are so tiny at the end of the month—note to Michelle, you gotta stop this), and it made me feel burnt out. Not only that, I felt really stupid about it!

Now, I invoice for every minute, every second that I work for a client. I personally use Clockify to manage my time and see how much I’ve worked on a project (and to know if I’m using too many hours—in which case I communicate with the client and let them know I’ll either need to scale back hours or we should increase their budget)—it includes a timer so that I just set it at the start of a task and have a detailed description of every minute I’ve worked.

This leads me to a specific example. This is actually one of the clients in my first example—a client I had to fire for asking me to do more work than was in the scope of my contract, paying me too little (I didn’t negotiate and I was making $12 an hour—that’s right, $12 an hour), and blaming me consistently for things that were not my fault. (A prime example is their website went down because they renewed the wrong website—which unfortunately badly effected their SEO. I wasn’t hired for SEO though and I’m not a programmer; I couldn’t help them with the technical bits of their website!) When I fired them, I sent my last invoice—and they didn’t pay it, didn’t pay it, didn’t pay it. When I finally asked them what was up, as our parting of ways was not contentious, she replied that because she would have to redo some of the work I had done, she didn’t think she should have to pay me for those hours and her bookkeeper agreed. I was so upset that I just said fine, pay me whatever. (Reminder: this was work that was completely outside the scope of my contract to begin with!)

Friends, this is wrong. Your client does not get to determine whether you are paid for the work you did for them or not. You did the work, you get paid for it. There is no arguing. If they do argue, tell them you will speak to a lawyer. If you have a contract (and you should always have a contract), make sure to stipulate payment terms. If you have to prove you did the work, that’s fine. But if you do deliver the work that is asked for, you deserve to be paid for it—and there is no reason why a decent business would ever argue about it or try to step back on a contract.

Whew! All this is to say: invoicing is a challenging part of freelancing, I struggle to bill clients appropriately (due to some guilt issues and imposter syndrome), and I completely understand if you feel lost and confused about the process because, honey, honestly, same.

Ok, over to you: what’s your biggest mistake you’ve made freelancing? I’m not talking email-sent-at-the-wrong-time or email-gone-unanswered, but rather—what is a mistake you made that taught you a serious lesson about running your business?

3 Cozy Summer Loungewear Pieces for Working from Home Featuring Femme Luxe*

It’s been so long since I’ve written and posted anything close to fashion content—including photos. I’m really out of the habit. However, I’ve been on the hunt for the perfect loungewear for wearing around the house while I’m working—pretty much since quarantine started in March. I feel like I’ve ordered more new loungewear and pajama sets than I have in years.

Part of the reason why I’ve been on the hunt for great loungewear is because I want to feel comfortable while I’m working from home, while also wearing things that don’t make me feel super slovenly or gross. I tend to wear my pajama pants (well loved pajama pants! I’ve owned the same 5 pairs since before I was pregnant with Forrest) and t-shirts of Danny’s when I’m home. And frankly, after a few weeks of that, I wasn’t feeling so great.

Loungewear gives you that perfect in-between of “I’m dressed up” but also “I’m super comfortable.” When Femme Luxe reached out to me to showcase a few outfits, I was excited to see so much loungewear available. It isn’t the sort of website I would usually consider placing an order from, but I decided to test it out and see what I thought. I’m really glad I did. Here are the 2 outfits I picked out (comprised of 3 separate pieces!).

The first choice I made was this Gray Oversized Loungewear Set. I love an oversized t-shirt, so that was an easy choice to make. In regards to sizing, I ordered the Large size in this one—the shirt is perfectly oversized. The leggings were a bit small at first, but have stretched out a little overtime. I’m typically a size 12-14 ish in pants and skirts (although it’s super variable), so just keep that in mind if you’re ordering.

Best of all these 2 pieces are comfy and soft. Since it’s a uniform gray-all-over, I feel a little more put together than just in my slubby oversized t-shirt!

One thing to note is that these leggings are a bit see-through in the butt—so if you wear them out, make sure to wear a longer t-shirt (like the matching one!) or a tunic-style top to cover up (if that’s something you worry about! If not, live your life girl!)

The second loungewear set I picked was the Taupe & Black Oversized Hoodie Shorts Loungewear Set. It’s a set of basically sweatpants shorts and a zip up hoodie vest—I picked the olive green color, but it also comes in taupe.

I ordered the XL size in this one and I probably could have ordered a size large. The shorts are a little too big, but that’s fine because they’re so comfortable and soft. I’ve probably worn this set more than any other—it’s so comfortable and perfect for summer, when it’s too hot for leggings, but you want to be comfy.

The hoodie vest is also great for layering—I like having pockets when I’m in my house, only so I always have my phone and glasses. These ones are perfect—they’re super big!

I paired this set with the Coral California Graphic T-shirt. I ordered a size Large in this as well—it fits really well. I’ve worn this t-shirt so much, I’ve washed it 3 times since I got it already! It’s probably my second favorite piece (after the shorts from the loungewear set!) and I’ve gotten a ton of compliments on it. It’s just a cute graphic t-shirt, perfect for wandering around the house, working or just lounging.

My favorite thing about these 2 outfits is that, if I have to jump on a quick Zoom call with a client and don’t want to change my outfit, it doesn’t look like I’m wearing loungewear—I look nice without having to put in a ton of effort!

When I first was approached by Femme Luxe, I was worried that they wouldn’t carry much in my size. Being plus size these days definitely feels a bit restrictive at times—there’s just less for us. But if you’re in the smaller range of plus size, Femme Luxe is a great, affordable option. Even better, they do ship to the United States, so if you, like me, want to try some new loungewear pieces, they will make it across the pond!

Disclaimer: As denoted by the asterisk (*) in this post’s title, I did receive items for free in exchange for posting. Posts like this help me keep the lights on here at Writing Between Pauses. However, all opinions remain my own. If you’d like to learn more about my disclosure policy, click here.

3 Tips for Social Media Managers

Social media management isn’t the only thing I do—and, I’ll be honest, it’s not my favorite thing to do.

Back when I first got into marketing, I dreamed of being able to take on social media campaigns, writing witty Instagram captions, optimizing hashtags… I took on other roles in the meantime, like email marketing or blog writing. When I finally got to social media management, I realized that it’s not quite the walk-in-the-park that people think it is.

I do want to start off this blog post with a bit of a disclaimer and explanation: social media management is a challenging, difficult field. It requires a lot of work behind the scenes in analytics and strategy. It goes without saying: just because you happen to have a large number of followers on Instagram personally does not mean you can successfully run social media for brands. You know the basics, for sure! But these are not the same thing and a brand that is selling a product is going to want more from you than perhaps you understand.

This isn’t to say it’s not something to strive for. But I’ve found myself getting frustrated seeing very young girls on Instagram try to pivot to being SMMs…. just because they’ve grown their Instagram (sometimes through blogging groups, sometimes through buying followers) to 10,000 followers. Those simply aren’t the same thing. This might be a bit of gatekeeping on my end, but all I ask is that if you’re interested in this line of work, you understand what you’re getting into, what it means to offer social media management services to a business, and how serious it is to take a business’s money in exchange for results.

All that being said, if you’re new the social media management world, I hope this blog post is helpful to you! I wanted to share 3 pieces of information I’ve learned over the past 6 years that have helped me become better at my job.

1. Social media management requires cooperation between lots of different departments—so make sure you know the entire marketing plan and how you play into it.

Too often, businesses and brands want social media to exist on its own island. They don’t want to provide creative; they don’t want to hire a graphic designer; they don’t have a blog or if they do, they don’t think social media is related to that at all. They just want the results. This is such an incredibly common attitude and it comes from a place of not understanding marketing.

My advice here is this: if you suspect a client is like this, it’s a red flag. You aren’t ever going to be able to do your job effectively; your client is going to get frustrated at the questions you ask; and the relationship will sour pretty quickly.

Social media does not exist in a vacuum, completely separate from other pieces of the business; a good social media manager knows the company calendar, speaks to others in the marketing department, and plays a role in each part of developing a marketing plan for the year.

2. Managing expectations is 50% of your job.

Here’s an example from a client I had at an agency once. When we asked what his goal for social media was, this is what he said: “My goal is to spread rumors about my competition and destroy them politically.”

Yes. He said that.

He wanted to use social media ruthlessly. And unethically. After the meeting ended (it was via teleconference), I turned to my coworker and said, “That’s not something we can do.” She shrugged her shoulders and we both went about our days. I knew what was going to happen though: we would do one month of social media, he would get mad that he hadn’t gone “viral”, and he would refuse further services.

Which is exactly what happened.

The person i am now knows that, during that phone call, when he first made that statement, I should have said: “that expectation is unreasonable. Here are some better goals.” Or I could have talked him through the purpose of why he wanted to do that. Eventually, though, I would have adjusted and managed his expectations so we could provide a better service without burning a bridge entirely. However, I didn’t know that at the time.

Managing expectations is an important part of running any marketing services; your clients need to know what is realistic and what isn’t. Most likely, a furniture company in the midwest isn’t going to go viral—and if they do, it probably won’t be a good thing. The same goes for literally any business in any sense. Managing their expectations of social media, what they want, and what it can do is a critical part of your job—and unfortunately, it just takes practice and experience.

3. Social media is an on-going, rapidly changing business.

What worked for a client last year might not work this week. What was popular a few weeks ago no longer is. The things you expect to perform well suddenly won’t.

Social media management can be very frustrating in this way: you never actually know what’s going to take off and what will succeed. It’s always a bit of guessing game because things change constantly on all platforms.

Here’s an example: in March, many of my clients pulled all their social media when COVID19 shut downs hit. This just felt responsible. Most of them shifted to a week-by-week basis of social media content creation, which increased my stress and the amount of time I worked with each client. However, it was the responsible thing to do with so much changing.

We were just starting to get back on track when BLM protests erupted. Again, clients pulled their social media and social ads. It seems that every single week, something is changing on social media, requiring brands and businesses to reassess what they’re doing on social media. This requires me to be on my toes and able to pull posts at a moments notice. It also means that, in terms of community management (a huge part of being a social media manager), I have to work with their PR (or if they don’t have PR, be their PR) to provide the best possible responses.

A lot of “social media gurus” (again, these are people who grew large personal followings then tried to transition to being a social media manager in the loosest sense of the word—without being too harsh, they are charlatans and much of their advice for businesses is bad) offer these kits or services where you plan your social media months in advance. I can’t begin to explain to you what a bad idea that is.

Yes, plan your calendar out in advance; yes, have an idea of your plan for the year. But I’ve begun to realize that scheduling an entire month’s worth of content for a month or two at a time is a good way to make it so your client finds it challenging to pivot should anything need to change. And now more than ever as social media managers, we need to be able to guide our clients in a way that is ethical and responsible.

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Whew! I think that’s everything! Are you interested in social media management? I’m always up to chat about how I got into the industry, how I get clients, and more over on Instagram. Send me a note—I’d love to talk!

3 Things I've Learned in One Year of Freelancing

When I started writing this blog post, I tried to find the previous one I thought I remembered writing around July of last year. As it turns out, I didn’t write very many blog posts last July—I wrote a few of my last beauty reviews and that was it. It wasn’t until August that I wrote a blog post about going freelance—and even then, I didn’t really talk about what had happened, just that I had been laid off and it sucked and I had one of two options. (You can read my first blog post about going freelance here.)

I found the blog post I thought I had written in July and it turns out, I wrote it in November. And again, in that blog post… it was in this blog post that I talked about being laid off and what they meant for me and how I didn’t want it to be the overwhelming focus of my life. (You can read that blog post, about resiliency, here.)

As it turns out, my desire to have the lay off and folding of a company I’d worked at for the majority of my career be the focus of my life wasn’t entirely possible. I’ve still spent time talking about it privately for months; at least once a month, something or other comes up about this company and I have to talk about it or interact with it. I still get calls about this company from the Oregon Department of Employment (fun!) and I still have to wonder: who, exactly, was I looking for?

I haven’t known how to write about what happened to me or this company (agency) that I worked for. It’s not my goal in life to make people miserable or to out people. I love gossiping privately, but this is one of those situations where the gossip isn’t that fun. Maybe because so many people’s lives were at stake. At first, I didn’t feel like it was my story to tell; I wanted my previous employers to be ahead of their own story and reputation and to control the narrative, without feeling like they were pressured by their former employees.

In an ideal world, that is what would have happened. It isn’t what happened unfortunately.

Here’s the truth about my being laid off: I got really, really screwed. My former employers still owe me money—over $5,000 to be precise—and it’s money that, over the last year, I have thought about repeatedly in an “I could really use that as capitol for my own business, to be honest” way. However, I’ve had to deal with the fact, internally, that I will never receive that money.

I will also never receive an apology. I know that now too. And they will never try to get ahead of the gossip or story or rumors about what happened. A lot of explanation is left to employees, which makes it hard for us to talk honestly about our experience without feeling like liars or poor sports, or as if we’re vindictive and out for revenge. None of those things are true.

But how can we talk about what happened when no one is being honest? It’s still not my place to talk about why my former workplace closed. But my decision to go freelance was impacted by one, large fact: I didn’t ever want to be screwed over for money like I was. I wanted to control my money and my product.

I lost all my work for 5 years. I have no portfolio, despite running social media for multiple businesses over 5 years, rewriting websites, writing blog content… it’s gone. All the proof of what I did is gone. And besides, as an agency employee to an agency that no longer exists, I can’t even say, “Well, I did X work for X client while at X”—because that place doesn’t even exist anymore, the bridge with the client has been burned so badly that our work was effectively wiped, and I don’t even have emails to back me up.

At the time I wrote my freelance announcement, I did so with the thought that I didn’t want to spill any “tea” so to speak. I just wanted to make people aware of what I was doing and how it was changing my life. But a big part of my motivation, at that point, was total independence. If a business can go under at any moment, then why not be in control of that business at least? I lost thousands of dollars to a business I had no stake in and nothing to show for. If I’m going to be at risk like that again, it might as well all be on my own shoulders.

This is all to say one thing: going freelance was still an incredibly hard decision. Some days are definitely easier than others. I’ve learned a lot over the last year and I hope that by sharing my story in my career it helps other people make better decisions for themselves and their families.

1. Networking isn’t as terrifying as I thought it would be.

Networking was the big scary idea of freelance that I always dreaded and hated. I didn’t know how to do it and what I did know about it, I didn’t particularly like. It stressed me out in ways that I didn’t really know how to identify.

The truth is, though, that networking is just… being friends with other people.

Networking gets a really bad reputation as being shallow and entirely favor-focused. And, of course, there are some people who use networking very shallowly. That being said, there are lots of people using it in very positive ways that aren’t so bad. I’m one of them!

I genuinely want to be friends with everyone I interact with in a networking way. I want to help them grow. I don’t ever approach anything with the “what can I get out of this?!” mentality. It’s just about building a relationship and seeing what happens. There will be lots of business relationships where I don’t see any “return”—and that’s fine! That’s just life!

So, networking isn’t so bad. And so much of my business comes from networking. I’d be really lost without it.

2. Project management is hard.

If you’re a project manager and you’re reading this, please know that your job is so vital and important.

Because it’s really, really, really hard to manage multiple projects and stay organized. Especially if you’re the one doing the work!

So much of my time goes to admin tasks: keeping Asana organized, making sure my calendars are up to date, invoicing, emails, everything. It all takes so much time. Then, when I start a new project, creating it in Asana, updating tasks, creating due dates… it’s so much work.

Alongside that, managing client expectations is part of project management and, oh my goodness, that is hard too. Staying up to date with multiple clients, keeping them updated, using their various task management and communication systems, scheduling meetings… it takes a lot of work!

This is the hardest part of freelance for me. I thought networking would be my bugbear, but it turns out to be actually managing and organizing projects.

3. Using cycle tracking helps plan my month.

Is this a big disparate to the first two items? Yeah, a little bit.

It was last year that I started noticing something that happened to me month-to-month: I realized that about a week before my cycle started, I had absolutely no energy or motivation. I often let this get me down: why can’t I get anything done?! But then, like clockwork, I would get a huge burst of creative energy usually a week before I ovulated—and I would stay in that energetic phase for about 2 weeks.

As it turns out, my experience is not unique. I randomly googled, “Why am I so creative when I’m ovulating?!” and it turns out, there is a whole system to this. Here are a few great resources I’ve found:

• How to Sync Your Business With Your Menstrual Cycle

• A Menstrual Cycle Based Business Calendar

For me, my monthly calendar is broken down week-by-week:

• The week of my period, I avoid meetings or large events. I simply won’t have the energy and honoring my body’s needs are more important. I usually do a lot of admin tasks during this time, as well as invoicing and planning my month financially.

• The week before ovulation, I work on calendars for the next month (so in June, I start my July calendars for clients). I’m ramping up my energy and feeling more creative, so this usually works out.

• The week I ovulate, I schedule meetings, launches, new client consults, and more. This is my most productive week always. I do most of my copywriting and graphic design this week for the next month.

• The week after I ovulate, I usually schedule in more time to rest after a busy and productive time, focus on admin tasks, analytics, reporting, and client relationships.

A lot of this organization has to do with how my exact cycle lands during the month (which will be different from roughly 75% of the population!)

It has definitely helped me to avoid getting in the habit of thinking, “I’ve lost my mojo, I don’t feel creative or energized by my work!” that then effects the rest of my month. This helps me so much with meeting deadlines. I’m so glad I discovered it and started organizing my calendar effectively.

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What a year it has been, huh? I can’t believe we are getting so close. A year ago this week, I was moving into my new house with absolutely no idea what was on the horizon. It’s always good to look back and think about how we’ve changed and what we’ve learned over the last year.

8 Empowering iPhone Wallpapers to Download Right Now

About a week ago, I posted a graphic on Instagram thatI’d whipped up late one night. I loved it almost immediately, and it was totally a fluke. I didn’t set out to make it! Using a bunch of free Canva elements, I made a few more to post on Instagram. Just fun, slightly cheesy quotes about being exceptional.

I know these kind of quotes aren’t super popular with certain crowds. However, in the last few months, I’ve started writing down and saving simple mantras that make me feel empowered. I’ve included a few of them in these wallpapers because I find them so helpful.

Seeing these mantras every single day has helped me stay on track. Therefore, iPhone wallpapers feels like a perfect option. I had such a great response to that Instagram post that I decided wallpapers was the next step. I turned those Instagram graphics into wallpapers and voila! Here they are, ready for you to download.

To download, please use the subscribe form below to sign up for my newsletter list! You’ll receive a confirmation email shortly to confirm your subscription that includes a link to download all 8 wallpapers.

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What Are the Benefits of Journaling in Your Daily Routine?

Do you keep a journal? A diary? A planner?

More specifically: do you have somewhere to dump all your thoughts, feelings, anxieties, tasks, plans, dreams? It doesn’t have to be a traditional diary. It can be in the daily part of your planner, or the extra notes pages in the back. Or it can be an app you use every day. A notebook you use for your grocery lists. Your Notes app. A Word document on your computer or your Google Drive.

Do you see what I’m getting at?

I’m a lifelong journal keeper. And recently in therapy, my therapist asked if I journaled and I basically started listing all the years I’ve kept journals and diaries meticulously. (My earliest saved, complete journal is from my sophomore year of high school. It’s a Harry Potter notebook.) We talked about the benefits of journaling and things I can start journaling about everyday to start thinking more about.

Journaling has so many benefits. Professionally, mentally, emotionally, personally… and making journaling part of your daily routine is super easy. There are so many ways to incorporate journaling—but that’s not what we’re here to talk about.

Journaling in the traditional sense isn’t for everyone; some people just plain don’t like writing by hand. And that’s ok! You can use whatever medium you like best. But, I do think journaling, no matter how you choose to do it, can benefit you in the long run. Think of it as self-care… and these are all the benefits.

1. Organize your thoughts in your journal.

I spend a lot of time journaling purely to organize everything I’ve got running through my head. I always have a million concerns, tasks, things to think about, ideas… and writing them down helps a lot. Sometimes I do four-point brain dumps, where I organize my journaling into MUST-SHOULD-COULD-WANT TO to help me roll through my tasks and overwhelming, pressing thoughts of what I want to do that day.

Other times, I just sit and write out something I’ve been thinking over. An idea that I’m not sure if I should go for or not.

Journaling gives you a chance to pour out everything you’ve been thinking about. Something you want to refer back to or just want to work through. Use journaling to organize your thoughts, answer your own questions, and work through any problems you might be having.

2. Improve writing skills by journaling.

Plain and simple: if you want to be a better writer, journaling will help you get there.

Learning to write things accurately, you write out longer sentences and better solutions, writing in a way that is compassionate or friendly or solution focused… it’s all in journaling! As well, writing, just like any art form, is better with practice. You only become a better writer by writing… so even if you’re not ready to post blogs or publish a novel quite yet, keeping a journal is a great way to write every single day.

3. Use your journal to track goals & problems.

Me: I want to do this every single day.

Two days later: wait, what was it I wanted to do?

Yeah, if you’re like me and you forget things if you don’t write them down, a journal is a great way to focus on your goals, remembering them day-to-day, and tracking what you struggle with, what helps, and more. It can also help you identify and talk through issues you have with goals, as well as noticing patterns in your behavior.

4. Journaling may help relieve stress.

For a long time, journaling has been added to superficial lists of how to “reduce your anxiety or fix your depression.” And I’ll be the first to tell you: I don’t think it will do that. Like at all.

However, if you’re someone who carries a lot of stress chronically, I can really relate. And I’ll be the first to tell you that writing everything down, getting all of those random little stressors out of your head and onto a page… will make a huge difference in your life! Sometimes, if I’m feeling particularly stuck on something and it’s stressing me out, taking a few minutes to just list everything that makes me feel stressed about that task is all I need to get on with it.

Journaling at the end of the day is also a good way to turn off your brain and keep those little stress points from keeping you awake.

5. Journaling gives you time to self-reflect.

As we go through our lives, there will be time where we have to make choices. And if you’re like me, sometimes you wonder if you made the right choice. Self-reflection is an incredibly valuable skill; it can help you assess your goals, figure out patterns of behavior that hurt or help you, and be you a better person. Using journaling to ask yourself questions like “did I make the right choice?” or “did my behavior hurt someone?” can be hugely helpful.

As well, it can help you assess things you’re afraid of. One big thing I’ve been tackling in my journaling lately is my fear of asking questions—and when that started, what it’s protecting me from, and more. Throughout my journaling, I try to note times during the day when I could have or should have asked a question and what I felt in that moment. That type of self-reflection is helping me overcome something that has impacted my life ever since I was a child.

6. Journaling can improve your memory.

I have a fairly good memory naturally, but a lot of it is because I write everything down, in the moment and in my journal. At my therapist’s recently, I was listing all my family member’s star charts and she paused me to say, “you have such a good memory!” It’s a blessing and a curse.

But if you struggle to remember things, especially tasks or things people ask you to do, journaling can be a huge help. The act of taking notes has been long confirmed to help improve memory. So writing things down as a way to remember helps you remember, even without seeing the notes (or journal) itself. If your 2020 goal is to remember more of your day-to-day and improve your memory, then journaling is a great option.

3 Easy Habits to Improve Your Time Management Skills

I’ve struggled with time management in the past. Mostly in the sense that sometimes I just don’t feel like doing a task. Sometimes I don’t feel like repinning all my Pins on Pinterest. Sometimes I don’t feel like rewriting meta descriptions on my blog posts. Sometimes, I just don’t feel like it! But I have to do it and then find myself taking on any other task just to avoid it. Changing all my Pinterest cover photos? Updating all my social media bios? Making future social media posts in Canva?

Suddenly, I’m deep into April’s content planning… but I haven’t gotten to that blog post I’ve been avoiding or the client work that’s rapidly approaching deadline.

How do you manage your time appropriately and stay on task… even if those tasks are repetitive (like admin work) or overwhelming (like your first client project)? I have a few habits that can help you get into a routine with your daily tasks, both big and small, so you can use your time more efficiently.

But first, let’s talk about your task list.

A Few Notes on Task Lists

I’ve known a few people throughout my life who just don’t write down their tasks, for whatever reason. They never got into the habit or, in one infamous case, they just didn’t think task lists were effective. To do lists, even just writing notes, they just didn’t do them. I’ve known people like this throughout my school and work career. And I just have one thing to say: sometimes it works (if you have a very good memory), but overwhelmingly, the people I’ve known who didn’t write down at least a vague idea of the tasks they needed to complete… didn’t complete them.

They lost track of time or they forgot about the task entirely. If you write down your deadlines on a calendar, even, you’re more likely to remember them and actually complete the work on time. If you keep a note in your phone with a few projects you’re working on, you won’t forget the admin for one of those tasks. But if you don’t keep any kind of system for your tasks, projects, and work… then things are going to slip through the cracks, especially if you work remotely or want to run your own business.

This is all to say: if you don’t keep a task list, or running to do list, day-to-day or even week-to-week, you’re going to miss things. Even if it’s just a post it note stuck to your computer or desk, try to keep some kind of record of the things you need to do. If you want to get more organized, I highly recommend developing a system that works for you; I keep a planner purely for deadlines and tasks that I update daily. If you’d like a blog post about creating a task list system, or picking the right system for you, let me know!

1. Use A Screen Time App to Set Limits

The biggest distraction I have to completing my work is my dang phone. I recently started using the Screen Time settings in my phone that basically make some apps inaccessible for certain periods of time. I also set time limits so I can’t use social media apps more than 3 hours per day on my phone. Right now, I have it set to make all social media apps inaccessible from 9am to 11am (break for lunch), then 1pm to 5pm. Then, all my apps are inaccessible from 9pm on (that’s for sleeping).

It’s really helped me reduce the time I spend on my phone without having to delete my apps. I can opt to open an app for 15 minutes at a time if I need to post something to Instagram stories or check something really fast. Otherwise, it helps me stay on task so I’m not mindlessly swiping through Instagram instead of doing something I need to.

You can download lots of apps that do this for you, but I personally have had good luck with the built-in settings in my iPhone. If you find your phone is a distraction throughout your day, this is the easiest habit to get into: set times where you can’t access the things you use to procrastinate and then get on with your day. (You’ll be surprised at how much time you free up when you aren’t scrolling or reading tweets.)

2. Block Your Tasks in Your Calendar

If you have a time estimate for your tasks, it can be really easy to put them on your calendar in blocked out periods of time. This way, your phone can also send you reminders 15 minutes before the block starts—so you can know it’s time to move on to the next thing (or get started on your work day).

I recently started doing this and let me tell you, it’s been a huge help. It gives me a good idea of how my day will look, while also letting me develop a concrete plan for what I’m doing day-to-day. I usually spend 15 minutes the evening before blocking out tasks on my calendar to give me a good idea of what my day will look like.

Here’s an example of what my time blocking looks like today.

One important note: if you commute, or have appointments that require drive time, make sure to schedule that time in as well.

Doing this can help you develop the habit of seeing where your time is really going. As well, it can help you better estimate how long each task will take over time, so you can become more efficient as well. I schedule several hours for each blog post, as I often need to stop and research as I write, plus I usually do a read through and edit before scheduling.

3. Think of Tasks as Rock vs. Sand

I recently came across a method of organizing tasks known as Rock vs. Sand. Basically, think of small tasks as sand and big tasks as rocks, and then, think of your day as a jar. If you try to fill the jar with just sand (all those little tasks that have piled up or low priority tasks), you’ll never fill up the jar; you’ll feel like you’re just spinning your wheels and you’ll get tired, burnt out, distracted, irritable… but if you fill your jar with rocks first (that is, if you tackle those big tasks that have been on your plate but feel overwhelming or tasks that are high priority), you’ll fill the jar much faster and have time to add sand tasks on top.

Every evening, I sort my weekly tasks into rock tasks and sand tasks. Then, I pick 2 big tasks (writing a blog post, finishing a client project) and a handful of small tasks (taking photos for Instagram, vacuuming the stairs, starting laundry) to accomplish each day to “fill my jar.” That helps me get a better idea of how to block out my time as well. You won’t get burnt out if you vary the amount of effort each tasks takes throughout the day.

Bonus habit: schedule in time for yourself!

My calendar scheduling ends at 3pm, you might notice, as that’s when Forrest comes home from school. At that time, I start cooking dinner, play with Forrest, listen to music, watch TV, catch up on my podcasts, read… whatever. Throughout the day, I try to take short 10-minute breaks, usually to do some step aerobics in the living room while I listen to a podcast or to grab a drink or a snack, but I don’t schedule those. I go by how I’m feeling. But one thing I make sure to do is not schedule out my whole day. At a certain time, I have to switch off and go into mom mode or, ideally, Michelle mode where I’m no longer an employee.

When it comes to improving your time management habits not letting yourself get exhausted and burnt out is a high priority. It’s ok to take breaks! You don’t have to be scheduled and working 24/7.

Do you have any tips for time management?