Planning Tools for Your Creative Biz - Part II

This is the second of a two-part post in which I share five favourite planning tools that have helped me move forward in my creative projects and business. Part I included tools #1 to #3; today's post offers #4 and #5.

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The very first page of Leonie Dawson's yearly business planner.

Heed the warning.

4. LEONIE DAWSON'S 2013 CREATE YOUR INCREDIBLE YEAR WORKBOOK & PLANNER - BUSINESS EDITION*

This was my first time using any of Leonie's yearly planners. I used the Business Edition, and I would use it again.

I wouldn't consider myself a prime target market for the "Goddess-y" flavour of Leonie's planning products, but I am a big fan of her content. It's solid, it's practical, and it covers a lot of ground. Her guidance is gentle, yet firm enough to give me the kick in the a-- I sometimes need.

In addition to the business planner she published this year, she offers a Life Edition. I haven't tried that one yet, but if business isn't your focus, it may be more up your alley.

5. LEONIE DAWSON'S MAGIC MONEY MAKING KIT*

In conjunction with the Tried, Tested & True Monthly Planning Kit I mentioned in Part I of this post, I use Leonie's Magic Money Making Kit to help with my monthly planning. They work well together.

The Magic Money Making Kit is part of Leonie's Business Goddess e-course. I like it because in addition to addressing specific financial and business goals for the month, it prompts me to think about how I want to live while I'm going about achieving them.

It reminds me that while yes, I have many business goals I want to achieve, I also want to get enough sleep, eat healthy meals, and have a date or two with D. while I'm at it.

I highly recommend Leonie's Business Goddess e-course. Like her yearly business planner, there's a lot of practical information in there. Just her Magic Money Making Kit, alone, has been tremendously useful to me and has become a staple used at the beginning of each month and throughout to see how I'm faring.

* Full disclosure: I am an affiliate for Leonie Dawson's products and will receive payment if you purchase a product of hers through one of my links. I only recommend products I have used myself. Her products have helped me move forward, and continue to do so, which is why I've chosen to share them here.

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Et voilà, five of my favourite planning tools! Together they've helped me gather my scattered thoughts, lay them out, stay focused and move forward, one small, next right action at a time.

Without them I don't think I could have achieved all that I did last year.

What about YOU? Do you have any favourite tools that help you move forward in your creative projects or business?

I'm always keen on learning about what works for different people; I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

Planning Tools for Your Creative Biz - Part I

After a bit of a planning hiatus to let things percolate, yesterday was a full on planning day that included looking at things I'd like to do this year, and specific to-dos for the month of February.

It's good to let things percolate, that's how ideas grow and morph into something possible. To make things happen, we also need to get specific. 

In this two-part post I will share a few favourite planning tools that help me get things done. I highlight three tools today in Part I, with another few to come in Part II later this week.

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1. YEAR-AT-A-GLANCE CALENDAR GRID

While I love getting down into detailed planning, it's also good to step back and get a bird's eye view of how it all fits together.

This tool started as a scribble on a wayward piece of grid paper; I polished it up a little for you and created a one-page PDF. You can download it here and print it out.

The year-at-a-glance grid is a great place to plot out creative, biz and other personal projects and events to see if, how and where they overlap. Simply write down what major events or projects are happening in any given month. If one of the monthly boxes is too full, it may be a red flag to either shift things around or plan for a busy period that month.

It's an effective, simple visual that allows you to adjust or prepare accordingly.

2. TRIED, TESTED & TRUE MONTHLY PLANNING KIT

I created this tool because I needed it. Period.

My brain often works on overdrive with creative sparks flying so fast I can't keep up. On some days it feels like an idea factory that just won't shut down, and it's the best creative high ever. On other days, that high is replaced by an overwhelming "Ack! Where do I start?"

The Monthly Planning Kit helps me gather my scattered ideas into one, monthly process. Using review prompts and the Monthly Planning Quadrant - a visual container for those scattered pieces of work, it helps me identify what I want to get done that month, and capture the rest so it isn't forgotten.

Get the Monthly Planning Kit FREE, along with news, prompts and inspiration, when you sign up for the Creative Living Experiment mailing list.

3. A DAILY OR WEEKLY PLANNER, OR BOTH

Breaking down your goals into weekly and/or daily objectives and writing them down keeps them visible and do-able. Oh, and an added benefit? It gets all of those nagging to-dos out of your head.

Right now my daily planner consists of plain ol' index cards. Yours may be electronic, or a favourite paper version. It really doesn't matter as long as your find a format that works for you.

Often, I bring half of my to-do list with me to the next day, or the one after that, or the one after that... Frankly, unless it's something critical (meaning it will delay my project if I don't do it), I'm OK with that. Remember: self-compassion is key.

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In Part II, I'll share a few more tools including one I use on a monthly basis with the Monthly Planning Kit, and another to help guide my work for the year. Stay tuned.

On stillness, work, and insights...

Bit by bit I'm getting increasingly clear insights on the projects and products I'd like to create this year to continue the work transition I started in 2011*. I'm not sure they'll all come to fruition, but I certainly can't deny their presence.

* For all posts related to my work transition journey, click here.

Words, titles, and images are asking to be acknowledged.

tea and candlelight: tools for creative biz planning

One morning journalling session produced an outline for an entire online course or program; another revealed an idea for a new booklet. An evening dedicated to business planning saw me complete the sentence "2013 will be the year that..." with "... I create and submit a book proposal."

WTF?

I also keep coming back to a series of mantras, or tenets, to guide my creative biz work this year. These are short phrases I can't seem to shake, so for now I'm choosing to go with them. (Stay tuned for another post, specifically on these tenets.)

The moral of this story, you ask? Two things jump out at me:

Insights, guidance and even more prodding questions come when we take time to be still, ask the questions, listen for the answers, and acknowledge them.

Some insights call for swift movement and adrenalin-filled action; others may ask for a more gentle approach, with more value gained by letting them percolate, or taking small, next right actions to see what unfolds.

Either way, we move forward.

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What practices do you have in place to receive insight and guidance?

Are any of your ideas or projects calling for quick completion? On the flip side, are any of them calling for a more gentle approach?

Scoutie Girl Contributions - Roundup 2012

One of the things of which I'm the most proud from last year is becoming a regular contributor to ScoutieGirl.com.

Because I don't always post links to my bi-weekly contributions here, I thought I'd gather the lot of them for 2012 in an end-of-year roundup post.

I am proud of the work I did for Scoutie Girl. Often these posts were written because their message was exactly what I needed to hear or process at the time. I return to them regularly when I need to do so again.

They serve me well. It's my hope that some of them may serve you too.

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What's Your Rhythm? (Dec. 2012) - Certain times of year bring certain types of energy. Discover your natural annual rhythm and let it serve you instead of fighting it.

Five Practices to Stay Grounded During a Busy Season (Dec. 2012) - Though written in the context of staying sane and healthy during the holiday rush, especially for creative business owners, these five practices more than apply to anyone, any time of the year.

Right Brain, Left Brain: It's All Complementary (Nov. 2012) - Reason, passion, left brain, right brain - it's all good and necessary. How could you use one to serve the other?

Productivity: Manage Your White Space (Nov. 2012) - Just like it factors in good design, deliberate white space in one's schedule factors heavily in the ability to be productive. It's up to us to figure out how to best use it.

Who Are Your Possibility Tracks? (Oct. 2012) - Possibility tracks - fictitious or real - offer inspiration or proof that through commitment, action and usually with a bit of serendipity thrown in, dreams and goals can be met. Whose path, behaviours and successes would you like to emulate?

What Are Your Success Factors? (Oct. 2012) - A clean desk, uninterrupted time, specific tools at your disposal... What could you - or do you - have in place to increase your chances of meeting your goals and minimize deterrents?

A Procrastinator's Guide to Procrastination (Sept. 2012) - I confess: I'm a planning & productivity geek who procrastinates. These six tips help me circumvent panic when I've left things to the last minute, and lead me as gracefully as possible to a finished product.

Defeating Resistance: The Magical First Draft (Sept. 2012) - A powerful tool to move forward and into action when deadlines loom: the innocuous first draft. It's helped me many times in submitting these very posts on time.

Push, or putter? (Aug. 2012) - When it comes to productivity, there's a time to push and a time to putter. This post offers thoughts on reconciling planned action and firm goals with intuitive action and letting things unfold.

Defeating Resistance: Make It A Game (Aug. 2012) - Three powerful and effective productivity tools I use games I play when procrastination or resistance stop me from doing what I want to do.

The Next Right Action (July 2012) - Get unstuck by figuring out your next right action, the crux of getting things done. The most basic, yet probably one of the most powerful tools in my productivity toolbox.

On Summer Slumber and Ambition (July 2012) - It's hard to find motivation to get things done when the hammock beckons. Here are six tips to help reconcile summer's slumber-filled nature with work and deadlines.

On Design and Life...*

 

my super-comfy, super-functional, red potato peeler

How many hours do you think were put into designing that red potato peeler above? What about our toothbrushes, or our shiny new phones?

Now here's food for thought: how much time and effort do we put into designing our own lives?

Hm.

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Living deliberately, in choice, with intention; reflecting; letting go... these are all part of my personal life design process.

Learning when to add features, adjust what's there, or remove the superfluous; knowing when to push, and when to let things unfold in their natural state.

'Tis a delicate dance.

In the end, whether we're talking about life or an ergonomic shovel, it's about creating a quality user experience with the product.

Food for thought.

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Are there areas in your life that are asking for deliberate design right now?

If so, why?

* This post was brought to you by Objectified, a documentary in which various designers share insights into the design of objects we use every day (see trailer below), plus my love of taking concepts and transposing them into a different context.