The Day I Realized My Workday Was the Problem

You know when you sit down to your computer all motivated and ready to conquer the photography business world —only to start a blog post, check your phone, start an Instagram post, start a Facebook post, start a Pinterest post, check email, change one thing on your site, check your email links, scroll through Instagram while waiting on your computer, retrain yourself how to do something on your Squarespace site, realize you got stuck scrolling while posting a story so you get up and get some coffee only to sit down and do it all again and end the day frustrated and thinking you suck at this and completely unfulfilled and disappointed.

I have been there a bazillion times! I can’t tell you how many times I have stood in the shower at the end of the day feeling empty and unsuccessful.

As a matter of fact it even happened last week — you know why? Because I got off of my plan!

I have spent the last few years perfecting a time management system for my photography business called Blocking. Some people call it time chunking or block work. Basically it’s doing all of one thing at one time and then going to the next.

Let’s talk about what actually happens on a regular work day:

• Get to your desk

• Check email

• Check analytics

• Start a blog post

• Go to a new tab on your computer or your phone

• Figure out what photo to use for your Instagram post

• Decide what to type

• Post on Instagram

• Go to a new tab on your computer or your phone

• Post on Facebook

• Figure out what photo to use for your Pinterest post

• Decide what to type

• Go to a new tab and do a Pinterest post

• Go back to your website and grab a link for the post

• Check email

• Scroll your phone

• Check to see if anyone watched your story yet

am I painting a truthful picture yet? I can keep going...

• get up to grab coffee

• come back and figure out where you left off

• scroll on your phone

• check your Instagram story

You've just spent four hours “working” and you have accomplished one thing... and that one thing likely will not bring you any business.

Here’s why blocking works: every single time you start a new section of work you flip the light switch of your brain off of one thing and onto another. That means you are refocusing your mind and energy dozens of times an hour if you follow the list I just wrote.

Blocking helps you take your thoughts — and your to-do list — captive.

So how do I block work to avoid all of that?

First, I upload all of my session photos to the Assets section in the Squarespace menu ahead of time. That way I’m not stopping to upload images every single time I blog or create content.

Next I go to my written schedule: (I have scheduled out every one of my working days).

• On the first Monday and Tuesday of each quarter, I blog for the entire quarter (yes, I use ChatGPT for my photography blog).
  I usually fumble through the first one, but after that I am spending 5–10 minutes per post. Once I get into a rhythm with blogging, it sails smoothly.

• On the first Tuesday and Wednesday of the month, I schedule out all of my social media posts for the month

HERE IS THE KEY: I do every outlet separately on purpose. Same reason as above - I’m not stopping, starting, rethinking… I am getting into a flow of working.

• I open Meta and schedule my Instagram posts for 30 days

• I write down every story I will post on a calendar so that I don’t have to reinvent the wheel (this way I can simply open my phone to do stories and not reinvent the wheel each time)

• Next, Facebook for 30 days — and no, I do not post the same thing on Instagram and Facebook. Facebook takes links. Instagram doesn’t.

• Next, LinkedIn.

• Next, Google posts.

• Sometime Pinterest (although I have a like/dislike relationship with Pinterest)

Sometimes this may take me a day and sometimes it may take me two. All said and done, I spend about eight days per quarter getting content ready to publish.

Then I stop! I walk away from my desk (and my phone) for family time. The rest of my work days are spent connecting with clients and actively trying to drum up business. The content part of my job is marked off my to-do list — Google is working behind the scenes, searching my site and doing its part of the business, and I get to move on to the people part.

NEED HELP? Let’s schedule and hour to get you into the flow of working ON your business check out my WORK WITH ME PAGE. Click the link to schedule a free 15 minute call and let’s chat about where you need the most help!