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 Habits to Stay Organized

I’m so excited to be sharing the second installment of my Let’s Get Organized series: 3 Habits to Stay Organized. Organization is not about perfection; it’s about having the tools and systems in place to make your life easier, whenever you need it. If you’d like to see May-June’s series on Daily Routines, click here.

Organizing a space is the easy part. You spend a day, or a few days, cleaning out a space, getting everything put away in a way that makes sense, and then it stays perfect forever, right? Right.

Actually, not right. We all know that’s not how it works. We’ve all organized a space and then gone back 2 weeks later and wondered what on earth happened.

Part of getting and staying organized is making it a habit that we work on continuously. A muscle that we stretch and strengthen like any other. It takes routine. It takes patience. It takes a few things that help make it a habit. Here are 3 ways to make organization a habit!

1. Make Your Organization Easy

This one is easier said than done. Basically: make your organization easy for you. There was a great Twitter thread recently about how, for some people, stacked, closed boxes for organization simply don’t work for them. It’s not easy enough. It takes too much time and effort and they know they won’t keep up with it. Open bins, however, work great. While that might not be for everyone, the point is: find a method that works for you. Neat stacks of things? Go for it. Open bins? Yes. Stacked, orderly, labeled boxes? Yes!

Whatever it is that makes organization easy, then incorporate it into your space and life. One thing I struggle with in my office is keeping my desk clear of clutter. I realized recently I need some place to put papers (that I will need to reference later!), random notebooks, etc. I am getting a second bookshelf soon (I know!) and I'll be getting a few open, pretty bins to collect those bits-and-pieces that I need, but don’t have a space for. I’m also getting a filing cabinet soon—it’s long overdue and it will change my office when I finally get one, I think!

Here’s a few ideas of how to make organization easy:

• Make your organization fit how you use a space. That means, don’t stack things that are basically storage in the pantry; put them in storage!

• Put everything where it goes the first time—and instead of just shoving it into a closet, take it to the actual closet where it lives. (A prime example of this for Danny and I is our 3 closets that each have 1/3 of our medicine cabinet.)

• Don’t challenge yourself with your organization. If you really want to be organized, know yourself first—don’t use this as an opportunity to force yourself to try a method you probably know won’t work for you.

2. Make Space for Everything (And If There Isn’t Space, Do You Need It?)

There should be a space for everything you need—and if there isn’t space in way that makes sense, that works, and that’s easy… then ask yourself: do you really need it?

This is sort of a Marie Kondo-esque moment—but not quite that intense. It’s just about simplifying.

Here’s an example: I have 4 tubs of journals. 4 tubs from my entire life. These are important to me. I keep them in a small storage room that is in my office’s closet. It’s a great place to store things I change out pretty frequently or use often, like wrapping paper, decorations for the seasons, extra rugs, tablecloths… that kind of thing. But over the last year, this storage room has gotten insanely disorganized. The primary culprit are these 4 huge tubs of journals. I like to look at them; I’ve referenced them a few times in the past year for random things. But I don’t need them in this space.

They could easily go to the garage! So once our garage is tidied up, that’s where they’re going to go and I’m sticking with it.

All I’m saying here is this: just because something doesn’t work in a space or isn’t needed in a space, doesn’t mean you need to throw it away or get rid of it. It might just mean finding a new space to store it, especially if it’s not something you use frequently or need frequently.

Once you’re really in the work process of organizing a space, deciding what you need versus what you want in that space really is crucial. It will impact how you choose to organize it. And making the right decisions and clearing out things that are just going to complicate the space will make it easier to stay organized over time.

3. Include Reorganization Into Your Routine

My office is a huge bugbear. It tends to be a catch all space where things get put: stuff my mom gives me, stuff that needs to go into storage, random papers, bills… all kinds of stuff ends up there! Right now, I’m still in the process of getting the space cleaned up and organized in a way that makes sense. However, I have started trying to do a quick, 15-minute clean up every evening where I straighten things up, put all the pens back in the pen cup, and at least straighten up my papers.

I also try to take a quick 5 minutes to organize my kitchen at the end of the day: putting things away, straightening random clutter that I need to figure out what to do with, checking the pantry, making sure coffee making stuff is stocked for the morning.

If you make these small tasks of continuously reorganizing and working on a space part of your routine, it makes it that much easier to keep up—and to become a habit. You’ll be more likely to put things where they go rather than just leaving them on the counter or tucking them away in a random drawer if you make it part of your routine to go along after yourself (or your husband, or your kids) and put them where they go. (And obviously, encouraging everyone in your home to do the same thing is the dream!)

Another part of this is, of course, changing your organization when it doesn’t fit. You might think you have a good idea of how to organize a space—but then when it comes to working in your routine and daily life, it just might not. So taking 5 minutes to quickly reorganize the coffee station or silverware drawer so it is more functional is going to make a huge difference and allow organization to be a better habit.

5 Steps for Getting Organized Fast

Happy July! This month, I’ll be posting a series called Let’s Get Organized!, all about organizing your home, your business, and your life. Organization is not about perfection; it’s about having the tools and systems in place to make your life easier, whenever you need it. I can’t wait to share my tips and tricks, and much more. If you’d like to see May-June’s series on Daily Routines, click here.

Here’s something I famously said to a professor: “Sometimes, I’m so organized that I feel like it holds me back.” I can still remember the way she looked at me, her head slightly cocked, and her expression of puzzlement. It didn’t make sense to her.

I’m a naturally organized person: I tend to always put things back where they came from, I love having a place for everything, and it’s very easy for me to get, and stay, organized. But in many ways, having that rigid of a way of thinking can be incredibly restrictive for, say, writing research papers (where sometimes you need to let your mind and interests wander!) or baking cookies with a 4-year-old (who doesn’t understand where anything in the kitchen is).

When it comes to organizing, I have found that it’s not a case of organizing a space and having it stay there. Living spaces are static: they evolve and change, just like we do. A system that worked when you first moved into your home or apartment might not make sense 6 months later, or after you have kids, or whatever!

Here are my 5 steps to organizing your space—whether it’s your office, living room, kitchen, closet, or whatever you need it—fast. (By fast I mean, in the space of 1-2 weekends!)

1. Start with one small place to organize first.

When it comes to getting organized, take it one step at a time. When we moved into our home a year ago this weekend (!!!), I wasn’t focused on organizing. I just wanted our stuff in the house. It didn’t matter where it went. As a result, we have a ton of messy closets, a messy garage, and much more. I still haven’t found my glue gun, which I misplaced at some point during the move.

However, I know if I tried to tackle every single closet and the garage and the living room and the kitchen all at once, I’d get overwhelmed, stressed, and burnt out on organizing. Just yesterday, I told my husband: my goal for this summer is to get our garage organized into a functional space, not just a bunch of stacks of boxes of stuff that we probably don’t even need.

Pick one space to start organizing and stick with that space, and that space only, for your first round. Don’t move outside of that space; don’t let yourself start thinking about those laundry room cabinets while you’re working on this space; don’t deviate from the plan. Pick one space, seriously.

2. Buy what you need for the space—not what’s available.

I was recently listening to the A Beautiful Mess podcast with Elsie Larson and Emma Chapman (it’s seriously really good!) and Elsie had a tip that I had never thought of before: if you need to buy something to organize the space, buy the perfect thing, not just what’s available. I have always just gone to the Dollar Store and bought whatever organizer bins or storage containers I can find. Sometimes, the options are just not great—but I didn’t really worry about it, even if they didn’t look how I wanted them to or even work in the space.

However, I realized that if I’m going to invest the money, rather than buying 3-4 rounds of different organizers at the Dollar Store or Target because they’re all that’s available… why not just save my money and buy the bins that look cute and fit the space and are functional? Why not buy the right size bin organizer, or the right entertainment center, instead of settling? Thanks, Elsie, we needed that one!

3. Focus on function.

If you search “pantry organization” on Pinterest, you’ll get a lot of super cute pantries: cereal emptied into gorgeous glass jars, Oreos stacked Khloe Kardashian-style, spices in teeny tiny glass jars, all organized 1.5 inches apart from each other in a perfectly clean pantry. If there are brand packages available, they’re boujee brands. And there is also this trendy thing going around where you put up a tension rod and use clips to hang individual bags of chips or crackers or whatever.

I can’t begin to tell you how impractical I think all of that is. Yes, while rushing home from Costco, I’m going to put my box of chips on teeny tiny hangers in my pantry, which my son won’t be able to unclip on his own—he’ll pull the whole thing down, repeatedly. The glass jars of Oreos, oatmeal, flour, and spices? Those will get gross. Better to put all those things where they go: the spice cabinet, the baking cupboard, in storage containers that are functional. The glass jars are cute, but they’re not functional. Those Oreos will get stale. Those spices will be exposed to more air and light than they need to. They’re all at risk of being knocked down at any point.

Your organization should be functional, not focused on what looks cutest on Pinterest. Please don’t feel like you have to buy little hangers for your bags of chips.

4. Declutter as you organize.

It goes without saying, but, I will say it: you should declutter in the process of organizing. That’s just kind of the point.

I recently organized my pantry a little bit. We have 4 Halloween buckets, at least 2 of them full of various holidays worth of candy since… 2018? I don’t know why I moved these from one house to another, but I did and, gosh, I am a little embarrassed about it! I threw them away. And I threw away the box of fruit snacks that we’ve had for a year, the boxes of cereal we opened once and didn’t eat, the mac and cheese that we haven’t touched… there are so much I was just holding onto because I didn’t think about it.

Declutter, declutter, declutter! It’s as important, if not more important, than organizing. Even if you don’t have the time or energy to redo the space you want to get organized, you probably have stuff you can toss or get rid of. That will make the space feel new with hardly any effort.

5. Remember that it won’t be perfect.

Taking on the space of your choice isn’t about making it perfect or Pinterest-worthy. It’s just about getting a system in place that works for you and your life! It won’t be perfect immediately. You’ll find ways to keep improving this space the more you use it and interact with it. And you might also find that the needs of the space changes over time. These are all fine things to have happen! We’re aiming for developing a system for a space, not a set-in-stone piece of perfection.

Why I Love Having a Daily Routine

Welcome to my new series all about routines. While developing my own routine over the last few weeks of stay-at-home orders and quarantine, I’ve found myself writing down notes about developing my routine, working from home, having kids, keeping self-care in my day, and staying sane! I wanted to share some of this information with you, to help you succeed and feel more rested, recharged, and productive. You’ll be able to check out all the posts from this series here.

You might be thinking: Michelle, maybe this should have been your first post on the subject of routines.

Well, when I originally outlined this series, I had it first—then I decided to save it for last. A lot of the reason was because I wanted to offer solutions for those who were looking for more structure in their lives. A secondary reason was, however, that having a reason for a routine is extremely personal—and in many cases, why I choose to have a routine might be completely different reasons from anyone else.

There are so many benefits to having a routine that works for you—but that’s also not what we’re here to talk about. We’re talking reasons why: why I started developing a morning and daily routine; what makes it work for me; and why I keep doing it (even if sometimes I do get tired). Let’s talk it out.

I’m not a spontaneous person.

Plain and simple: I have never been that friend that people describe as “so spontaneous!” I am indecisive; it takes ages for me to decide to do anything. I am very easily distracted and I have trouble focusing. So while I’m not spontaneous, I do get off track and in the zone very easily.

Part of the reason I love having a routine is because it eases those decision-making moments for me; instead of waking up and deciding what to do, I have my routine. I don’t have to make one decision that will make me just a little bit more fatigued when I have to make a decision later. I’m not spontaneous and making decisions on the fly simply isn’t my thing—so, routine it is.

It helps ease my stress level.

I’m fairly high strung. This is a descriptor that has always eaten at me: I hated hearing myself described as “sensitive” or “high strung”. I know a lot of people don’t necessarily know what this means, but here it is: it means I’m nervous a lot. Like, most of the time. If you meet me in person, my number 1 vibe is “nervous.” I’m basically this meme:

It sucks to have that be a part of my personality, but it just is. I’m fairly frequently nervous. Which means I’m highly prone to experiencing fairly severe stress levels. It’s something I’m working on, but having a standard routine, with a standard way of doing things, helps me feel less nervous, stressed, and highly strung.

It gives my day structure.

Days when I don’t have anything to do are a nightmare. If my to do list is empty, and stay-at-home orders are still in place, I turn into a monster. I have trouble deciding what to do and I start feeling more and more anxious.

My day needs structure. So even if I don’t have anything on my to do list, I will go through my routine: showering, getting ready for the day, drinking my coffee, going through the motions. Just to keep my day having that backbone of structure. Then I’ll fill it in with activities as I can: picking up those little tasks I’ve been putting off, working on future planning, or more. I need the structure of a routine. I need it to survive, otherwise I will be the nervous dog in the vest even more.

It is comforting.

There is comfort is ritual, in knowing what to expect. For me, that’s what made March, April, May (I have completely forgotten the months of April and May, to be honest, I had trouble writing this list??), and early June so hard. Stay-at-home orders completely changed my days and their routine. I was a mess for a while and I had trouble finding comfort. It’s because I didn’t have my routine anymore, I felt completely adrift. But being able to find a new routine and settle into something is incredibly comforting. If you find yourself frequently adrift and feeling unsure, I cannot recommend routines enough.

---

I hope you’ve loved my blog series on routines! I’d love to hear your thoughts as well.

As an exciting update, I have just launched my new Freebies page! This page is not accessible from my home page—it’s only for the ones who stick around to the end of this post (or who find it on Pinterest, hint hint!). You can access it HERE and grab 15 FREE products I’ve made over the years—including some I made and ended up abandoning the blog post for. Thanks for reading and I hope you love the freebies!

What's On My Daily Routine Checklist?

Welcome to my new series all about routines. While developing my own routine over the last few weeks of stay-at-home orders and quarantine, I’ve found myself writing down notes about developing my routine, working from home, having kids, keeping self-care in my day, and staying sane! I wanted to share some of this information with you, to help you succeed and feel more rested, recharged, and productive. You’ll be able to check out all the posts from this series here.

---

A quick note before we begin: I took some time this week to halt my own content in order to give myself space to listen and learn. Like many other white people, and specifically white bloggers, I want to always make sure I’m doing my best to support my BIPOC peers and making space for them to feel heard. In terms of my blog, I am still working on what that means. Pivoting my content in the last year from primarily beauty to career, lifestyle, and more has been challenging—but I know in many ways I need to acknowledge the difficulty not just of mothers in finding and creating their careers, but the difficulty of BIPOC in their careers, specifically in regards to racism, discrimination, and harassment in the workplace. I never want to speak for BIPOC and so, I’m still working on listening and learning and better understanding how I can incorporate this reality into my content in a way that is respectful and honest, without speaking over those who need to be heard.

Thank you again for reading!

---

What a week it has been! Since my last post on routines, I feel like the world took another hard (but necessary) pivot. If you felt stressed and overwhelmed this past week, I hope you were able to take time to show yourself kindness while also doing hard work.

It’s difficult to jump back into writing about routines when so many of our lives has been disrupted, again. Whether you are protesting or staying home (to protect those who are immunocompromised in your household), we have all had things to grapple with this week. As time moves on, we will find our routines again. I hope these posts remain helpful and timely even then.

In an ideal world, our daily routines create the backbones of our day, giving us time for both our work and ourselves. Routines are by no mean a hard schedule—as I’ve discussed before. (You can read my entire post about crafting your daily routine here.) I want you to think of your daily routine as a few guiding activities that build your day, allowing you to feel good throughout the day and do the hard work that is necessary for you, your family, and your community.

Today’s blog post is all about creating a daily routine checklist—and specifically, what’s on my checklist.

When it comes to my daily routine, I typically divide my day into 3 parts: morning, afternoon, and evening. That’s pretty basic. I have 2-3 things in each part of my day that are part of my routine and I tend to work my entire schedule around them.

Here’s my full daily routine checklist:

Typically, the first 3 items are my immediate morning routine: I check my email, I journal or do one page of a 52 Lists book, and then I make breakfast with Forrest. After that, I dive into work and/or take Forrest to my mom’s house so I can have a few hours of work time. Then, I hit #4: checking my daily schedule and reviewing my planner for tasks. As I get emails (or spot them in the morning), I usually take notes in a notebook and write out any tasks in my planner. I review this once a day to get an idea of everything I need to accomplish during the day.

Then, I work.

After lunch, I usually have an hour or 2 with Forrest and make time for a few more parts of my routine: watering my plants and taking Remus on a walk (usually with Forrest as well). These are non-work related tasks, but an important part of my day. After that, Forrest has TV time and I usually review my planner and to do list again and tackle any tasks that need done.

In the evening, I always make time to read for 20 minutes or more, usually in the bathtub. Then, I review my Clockify, making sure I’ve logged all my time and assigned it to the correct client. Without this last bit, I think I’d be a total mess.

That’s it! My daily routine checklist is relatively short, but it helps me really get a handle on my day, my goals, and what I need to achieve.

Now, let’s talk about how I put this routine together.

When you think about your routine, I want you to think about it in those same 3 chunks of your day: morning, afternoon, and evening. What things do you find yourself doing during those times? Do they work? Do they not?

Here’s my advice:

• What things do you need to do for work that will make your day easier?

• What can you do to make yourself feel good, mentally, emotionally, or physically, every single day?

• What can you do to start your day on a positive note?

I made a free daily routine checklist builder for you that in it, I help you narrow down your daily routine by having you choose from the following 3 categories:

• Basics (a few simple ways to start your day)

• Work routine

• Things that make you happy

This isn’t meant to be “you can only have these things in your routine!” These are just suggestions if you’re new to having a routine and especially if you’re new to keeping track of your routine day-to-day.

This is how I started putting my routine together: I combined the things that make me feel most energized in the morning (checking my email while drinking my coffee, journaling, and having breakfast) with things that keep me on track for work (checking Clockify and frequently reviewing my planner) and things that make me feel good (spending time with Forrest, taking a walk, and reading).

You can grab your free daily routine checklist builder by signing up for my newsletter!

Thank you again for reading! Let me know how my daily routine checklist builder helps you—or what you’d like to see included in it!

5 Tips for Crafting Your Daily Work Routine

Welcome to my new series all about routines. While developing my own routine over the last few weeks of stay-at-home orders and quarantine, I’ve found myself writing down notes about developing my routine, working from home, having kids, keeping self-care in my day, and staying sane! I wanted to share some of this information with you, to help you succeed and feel more rested, recharged, and productive. You’ll be able to check out all the posts from this series here.

---

So you want to start a daily routine, but you don’t know where to start? I’m glad you’re here, because this has been a topic I’ve been so excited to write about.

Having a daily routine can feel, depending on your point-of-view, super easy or super complicated. It just depends. I’m sure there are plenty of people (and maybe they’re like me!) who say, it’s not that hard, just do the same things every single day. Boom. Routine. But for many, it’s just not that easy.

If you’re someone who struggles to stay productive, or you get easily overwhelmed or distracted, creating a daily work routine that helps you get more done (without feeling like you’re being micromanaged) can be really challenging.

So, here are my 5 tips—which include step-by-step instructions for creating your daily routine.

1. Take time for what matters to you.

As I’ve written in previous blog posts in this series (you can read them all here!), no single routine will work for every person.

Step 1: Write down a list of 10 things you want to do everyday that will be impactful and meaningful to you. What do these 10 things mean? Are they part of a larger goal for you to meet? Here are a few examples of what I would write down:

• Journal

• Write my to do list

• Exercise/hit 10,000 steps

• Send LinkedIn messages

• Drink water

• Make bed

Step 2: Look at your list and order these things in a way that makes sense. Right when you wake up, what are 2 things you can do right away that will make a difference in your work day? How can you arrange this list in a way that makes sense for your day and that helps you feel motivated?

Step 3: Once you’ve ordered your list, think of realistic ways to incorporate these things into your routine everyday.

For me, that’s make my bed (which isn’t related to work, but does make me feel better) and then write my to do list. Typically, those are the first things I do everyday. I might be interrupted, but I also try to do those 2 things first—then, I jump into journaling and work tasks.

2. Set realistic expectations.

Are you going to wake up, make your bed, run 5 miles, make a gourmet breakfast, and still get to that 9am Zoom meeting on time? Let’s be honest: unless you decide to wake up at 4am, probably not. (Although, if that’s your thing, please go for it!) My point is that if you’re someone who has never done those things, they probably won’t start day one.

Make sure your list and routine is realistic. Here are a few examples based on my routine:

• Unrealistic: wake up, shower, make bed, work out, make breakfast for Forrest & I, get Forrest to my mom’s, journal, work.

• Realistic: wake up, make bed, work for an hour before Forrest wakes up, make breakfast for Forrest & I, take Forrest to my mom’s, journal.

The reality is if I have an extra hour in the morning, I’m not going to shower or work out. That’s just the truth. Those 2 things make me feel good, but in terms of how my life works, I prefer the extra hour.

As you work on your lists in tip #1, remember to keep your expectations realistic, what you can and cannot do, and what makes sense for your day.

3. Keep track of what does and does not work.

This is something I often repeat and I know for many people, they ask, what does that really mean? Let’s take a look.

Step 1: You’ve created your list from tip #1, you’ve ordered them, and you’ve started incorporating them into your day. Great! Now what? The first step here is to keep track of what feels right and good in your routine. That means, using a journal or scratch pad to keep track of your day in some way. This might just be jotting down notes, it might be checking off that list you wrote earlier… whatever works for you.

Step 2: Does something feel out of place? Is there something you meant to do but keep forgetting? Maybe it’s not as important as you originally thought it was or maybe it simply doesn’t make sense in your routine.

Step 3: Cut out the things that aren’t working. For me, this was removing pressure to work out in the morning or at a certain point each day; it just made me feel overwhelmed. Some days, I do aim for a work out, but day-to-day, it’s simply not a part of my routine. This also means keeping the things in your routine that aren’t working and becoming more aware of why they work and how they impact your day.

4. You’ll never be able to schedule your whole day.

This is more of a note, but: a routine isn’t a schedule. It isn’t strict. It’s just a series of things you do every day that make you feel good or improve your productivity (or ideally both). It’s easy for them to get conflated!

The truth is, it would be great if we could all schedule our day out to the 15-minute block. Trust me, I’ve tried that in time blocking—and even for someone like me, who thrives with routine, it simply doesn’t work for most people’s lives. Things come up. Feelings change. Needs change.

A routine is something that changes with you, that simply provides a blueprint for your day. How it actually adds up is entirely up to you. Some days, I don’t make my bed right when I wake up—but I get to it eventually because it’s a part of my routine that I find something. Some days, I don’t write in my journal because I don’t feel like, or I have more pressing work tasks to work on, or any number of things.

You can’t schedule out your whole day, especially if you’ve never been the type of person to stick to a strict schedule.

5. Protect yourself from burnout.

Step 1: Notice the signs of burnout. Here a few things to look for:

• Fatigue or exhaustion that you never experienced before.

• Feeling like you want to get things done, but you simply can’t find the energy to do so.

• Physical symptoms you never had before that aren’t tied to any specific illness.

• Feeling pessimistic and detached.

The symptoms of burnout can be very vague—but if you’re experiencing them, you probably recognize them. With shelter in place orders and quarantine, many of us are working longer hours from home; the lines between our home lives and our work lives have become incredibly blurred; and we all have more on our plate than before (work anxiety, anxiety about the economy and social tensions and more, plus childcare and homeschooling). Burnout is real.

Step 2: If you’re starting to feel totally overwhelmed, here are a few different things to do:

• Scale back your routine. Strip it to the minimum. I’m very goal-oriented, but I’ll be the first to tell you: when I start to feel signs of burnout, I know I need to let go of the goals for a little bit.

• Add more self-care and self-soothing to your daily routine. A long morning shower might cut into your work time, but will it help soothe you? Getting all your work done early so you can play Animal Crossing might feel flaky, but will you feel better?

• Speak to someone. There are lots of at-home resources right now for counselors and therapists. TalkSpace, or just contacting a local therapist, will make it easy. My therapist has been offering teleconference options that are secure since March. If you don’t want to talk to a therapist, reach out to a friend or family member, make sure they have space to help you, and let it out.

---

There you have it! My 5 tips with step-by-step instructions. Are you working on your daily routine? Let me know how it’s going in the comments!

Do You Need a Habit Tracker?

It feels like habit trackers are everywhere.

Back when I first started bullet journaling, I had never seen a habit tracker before. Now, they’re everywhere. Doodle in the edge of bujo layouts, printed in planners, on apps you can download on your phone.

Search for habit trackers on Google and you get thousands of results.

There are free printables and planners, cheap habit tracker planners you can buy in Walmart (I have one!) and so many more.

Habit trackers are everywhere.

But do you need one? How effective are they really? Let’s break it down.

What is a habit tracker?

The idea of habit trackers is this: you have a goal —> you break that goal down into month-by-month steps —> you set daily habits that contribute to those monthly goals (which add up to your larger goal).

Here’s an example. You want to reduce your resting heart rate over the next year. You set month-by-month goals of increasing your average number of steps (being more active) and using your standing desk more. Here are a few habits you might track:

• Drinking enough water

• Taking breaks to walk around

• Doing short workouts

Other examples might be self-care focused, like taking your medication everyday, doing de-stress rituals, and making time for yourself.

You can use all kinds of habit trackers. As I mentioned, there are tons out there! You can buy habit tracker planners, draw them yourself in your bullet journal or existing planner, and even download apps. There are lots of ways to make habit trackers a part of your life and daily routine. But here’s the question: do they really do anything?

Do habit trackers really help?

It took me a long time to come around on habit trackers. I really didn’t like them to start with. I found them a little fussy and they stressed me out; if I wasn’t able to check those boxes (and for my loftier goals, sometimes it just wasn’t possible!) I found myself getting upset.

However, I think there are ways to make habit trackers work for you. Not everyone is going to want to meet the same habits. I don’t want to drink 8 bottles of water a day (I know, I know, but also, that’s so much water), nor do I want to exercise everyday. There are things i want to do everyday, like make my bed, wipe down the counters in my kitchen, and write for 20 minutes. So I track those habits, because they mean something to me and by using a habit tracker, I’m able to see just how good my routine is getting.

The question is: are habit trackers right for you?

Here are a few things to consider:

• Use a habit tracker that works for you. My husband uses an app on his phone to remind himself to take breaks every 2 hours while he works, drink enough water, and take his medication. I use a habit tracker planner to help me keep control of my house to do list and daily habits. Different methods, same idea.

• Pick habits that mean something to you. If you browse bujo layouts everywhere, you’ll see a ton of habit trackers that track water intake, sleep… you get the drill. Sometimes, I find bullet journaling to be a little esoteric; the fancy charts that track sleep and mood and habits… it’s a little overwhelming and while I love data, I don’t necessarily want to quantify every aspect of my life into a chart. So my advice is: pick habits that are meaningful to you and as many (or as few) of them as you want.

• Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed. If you find tracking your habits makes you stressed out or super irritable—then it’s not for you! Don’t put it in your bujo, return the planner (or give it to a friend), delete the app, whatever. If it doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t work for you and that’s ok.

Do you use a habit tracker? Do you like it? Let me know in the comments!

A Day in the Life of a Freelance Marketing Copywriter During Stay-At-Home Orders

One thing that has brought me a lot of comfort lately has been reading other people’s daily schedules and lives right now. I started thinking of how I could contribute to the conversation; I work a non-essential job from home with a 4-year-old every single day. The last 6 weeks have been stressful and difficult; there has been so many decisions, so much to do.

But I feel like for others in similar positions to me (working from home, trying to care for children, trying to look forward without stress), it’s really helpful to see how others are handling it. How are we scheduling our time? How are we making things work?

This has felt like the most surreal 2 months of my life; I started a new freelance contract in late February and then, stay-at-home orders happened in Oregon. Everything has changed for that particular client and the work I’m doing!

I guess the main reason why I wrote this was to show you: what I do all day; how I’m helping Forrest adjust to this very weird, very isolated time; and to let you know that if you need help troubleshooting your day (or just need to talk!), I’m here.

---

Morning

I wake up at 5am to tackle some scheduling for a client. I live in a rural area, so I basically have 2 forms of internet: unlimited data from 2am-8am, then 15 gb of data for the month the rest of the day. For big data tasks like a lot of uploading, I try to get up early to get those done. 

As I get my computer booted up, I make coffee for my husband. Then, I make an iced coffee from the leftover coffee I keep in the fridge for myself. (I use 1 cup of cold coffee, 3 tablespoons of oat milk, 1.5 tablespoons of almond milk creamer, and 1 packet of truvia, plus ice cubes. If you’re looking for a good, strong iced coffee recipe.)

Scheduling takes a few hours that I usually have to split up over a few days—but in about an hour and a half, I manage to get a big chunk done for all clients. By 7:30, my husband is up and getting ready to leave. He’s a teacher and while he’s not teaching students in person, due to our internet situation, he is still working from his classroom. This is nice because it gives us both a chance to get away from each other and have some room to breathe.

My son usually wakes up between 7:30 and 8. Once he’s up, I help him pick out clothes, get dressed, and comb his hair. Then I make breakfast. Today, I make him oatmeal, which is his new favorite. He has strawberries and raspberries on the side.

Once he’s eaten, I take him to my mom’s by 8:30; she watches him for me while I work for a few hours. For the first 5 weeks of stay-at-home orders, we quarantined away from my parents; my mom asked to start watching Forrest again and I couldn’t say no. It’s been a huge stress reliever for me and F’s behavior and mood has improved as well. He hadn’t been out of the house for 5 weeks and I don’t take him if I need to run errands.

At home, I take a shower, eat breakfast myself, and then jump into work for a client. I manage a Facebook community for a national brand via a local agency. I use time blocking to manage my day, so I dedicate 1-2 hours in the morning to this client. Then, I take a quick break to work out and clean up my bedroom; I make the bed, start my diffuser going so it smells good, and start any laundry. I also move the morning’s coffee from the coffee pot to my iced coffee container in the fridge. 

Then, I spend an hour writing and I answer emails in all my various company emails. 

By this time, it’s 11:30. I let my dog outside, make a second iced coffee, and then head back to my office to tackle an hour of client work, including writing.

Originally I was supposed to have client calls from 12:30-2, but they were canceled and moved to tomorrow, so I head to my mom’s to pick up Forrest. On Monday, we get McDonald’s as a treat; Forrest gets a Happy Meal and I get a large Diet Coke. At home, we have some TV time and I check my client’s Instagram accounts at the same time.

After about an hour, I return to my office and do a second round of community management for one of my client’s—this usually takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. Today it takes about an hour. I answer any emails or Slack messages from this client. I have so enjoyed the work I do in community management; right now, I’m a temp employee while their usual social media coordinator is on maternity leave. I’m so excited to see her return, but I’ll be sad to leave this work behind. (As an update: when I wrote this, I was planning to be done in mid-May with them, but I’ll actually be staying on to continue to do their scheduling and weekend community management! I’m very excited as I love this team.)

Once I get that done, I do some admin tasks for myself, primarily related to getting Forrest registered for preschool next year and accounting.

Admin work done, it’s almost 4pm. F is pretty good and doesn’t interrupt me a ton when I work; it helps that my office is separate and we’ve taught him that he doesn’t just walk into it (although I do catch him stealing paper from my printer fairly frequently). I turn off my computer and head to the kitchen. 

We are having leftover chili from the weekend, so F helps me make a new batch of cornbread. Then, I get him a snack to eat until dinner is ready and/or my husband gets home. (It’s a tube of yogurt, his favorite thing.) 

The TV goes off after 4pm, so we listen to an episode of Storytime, a story podcast for kids, or music. Each week we pick a new music artist and I make a kid-friendly playlist for Forrest. (I won’t take credit for this idea—it’s inspired by Elsie Larson of a Beautiful Mess!) This week is Leonard Cohen, which is a bit heavy for a 4-year-old. He much preferred Beatles week or Shania Twain week. 

I usually pour myself a glass of wine during this; I have a Winc wine membership and I have enjoyed every single wine I’ve gotten from them. (Here is my referral link if anyone wants to try Winc!)

Close to 5, my husband gets home, washes his hands, and changes his clothes. I serve up dinner and we eat together as a family. Forrest helps us clean up afterward, then he heads to his room to play. My husband usually relaxes in his office upstairs during this time; it’s right next to Forrest’s room, so he gets to wrangle while I work uninterrupted for a while. 

I finish up a blog post for my website, then double-check my to do list. I’ve pretty much gotten my work handled for the day, so I work on some writing. I’m currently planning my NaNoWriMo novel for November—it’s just something to do! 

When I hit a stopping point during writing, I head upstairs to take a bath. Forrest is happily playing with my husband, so I light a candle, run a bath, and download a new book on my library app on my phone to read. I probably read 3-4 books a week, sometimes more. I wish I could tell you I was reading highbrow works of literature. The truth is, I’ve been reading through Lisa Kleypas’s library of Regency-era romances and have moved on to some of her contemporaries. I have an entire tag full of these books on my library app.

After my bath, I clean up the bathroom and do my skincare routine. It’s nearly 8pm by this time, so Forrest gets ready for bed (brushes his teeth, washes his face, puts on his pajamas). He’s been having trouble sleeping for a while, ever since we moved into our new house, and surprise, things were getting a lot better in February. Just in time for stay-at-home orders!

He watches Lego Movie 2 in bed beside me while I play Animal Crossing. He usually falls asleep during this and we move him to his bedroom. Sometimes, he stays there. Most days, I wake up around midnight to him asleep on the floor next to me in what we call his “nest”. I don’t particularly mind this. 

Before I fall asleep, I check my email, Slack, and social media apps one last time, just to make sure I didn’t miss something urgent. I make a few notes on my phone of things to remember the next day, then turn on my heating pad. 

---

That’s my day! That’s a pretty standard day for us, broken up occasionally by meetings. I’d love to see what your day is like! Let me know in the comments or link your own blog post.