I like to think of myself as a creative type, but being creative is something I have been struggling with for the first time in my life. This is mainly due to running my own business…or more accurately due to one of the major challenges of being a one man band, having to do everything myself. I am my own book keeper, PA, marketing department, designer, researcher…you name it the job is mine. This has created an environment where my brain feels rammed full of lots of things I struggle to understand half the time. The result of which has lead to a lack of headspace, and often time, to be creative. This has to change!
A lot of creatives I know face similar challenges and have a variety of ways of dealing with them, but systems are mine. The better my systems the more headspace I get back. This doesn’t come easily to me as being mildly dyslexic and growing up in a haphazard environment ‘a place for everything and everything in it’s place’ is a fairly foreign concept. However, I know when I’ve got it right because I stop thinking about it and gain a sense of calm. I get mocked for being OCD by my family, but I’m not really it’s just the more things I have to fit in the more organised I have to be. If I have to spent 15mins looking for something it drives me up the wall.
Good business systems have the same calming effect on me. I have a checklist with a time frame for each client so that I don’t have to think about when and where things have to be done. This gives me the opportunity to be creative and in the long run delivers a better product, more efficiently to the client, leading to a better client experience.
Unfortunately, I don’t yet have any systems in place for blogging and social media promotion…but not for long…the 30 day blogging challenge is going to fix that!
I’d love to here how important other people feel systems are to their business, especially if they are in the creative industries and how you create more time and headspace in your weeks. Leave a comment below and we can all pool our ideas to save time, stay sane and be more creative.
Thanks Claire x
Claire Watson Photography 
wow – that sounds brilliant Claire – I’d love to hear more about the actual systems you use. I too am a one man band and dyslexic – it’s driving me nuts.
Helen, check out Jan Halfpenny. I know her through FSB. All her work is on Dyslexia in business http://www.halfpennydevelopment.co.uk/about-us-1/jan-halfpenny/
Brilliant, thanks Claire I will
I hear you, Claire!
I am naturally organized, but I have ADD. There’s a constant battle going on. I crave organization and structure, yet I abhor it! I didn’t understand it for a long time. Now I do, but old ways are hard to overcome, so there’s still a battle.
Simplifying is the thing I keep coming back to. The older I get, the more I feel the way you’ve described in your post. I have far too many interests! (Can we say “shiny object syndrome”?) I need to simplify so I can see my path clearly, and know which direction I need to go.
Yip I’m familiar with shiny object syndrome…simplifying is another thing I struggle with.
Being organised is the one thing that keeps me sane. Without my productivity tools I would feel all of my to dos and tasks swallow me whole because in my head they are all due now and all have the highest priority. I always think of it as Dumbledore’s pensieve – writing a to do down with deadline and priority takes it out of my mind and makes room for more important stuff. Thanks for the post, Claire!
Being more organised would keep me sane-er…it’s a work in progress 😉