You want a successful business. You want to share your passion with others. You want to make sale after sale after sale & build the business of your dreams. And yes, you're aware of the fact that there are a lot of things you need to be focusing on to achieve these goals. For instance, you need to make more products, then you need to market them, but you have to know where to market them & that means knowing where your customers are at. Wait, that takes knowing who your customer is first. Once you do that you have to get them interested in you & want to know more about you. Maybe you'll invite them to your blog. Blog! It's a mess! Maybe you'll direct them to your Etsy shop or website, but you don't feel like it's ready. You need to add more products to it. Does this sound like you? I know you're struggling to stay on top of things, to devote time to the right activities, but you know what? YOU ARE NOT ALONE! The secret to being productive in your business is to get organized. It's that simple & today I'm gonna tell you how to get organized by creating a schedule that works for you!

You Have No Clue Where To Start

Granted that when running a business there are tons of things you have to do. Big things, little things, short-term things, & long-term things. It's easy to get overwhelmed. It happens to us all, but you can work through it & learn to keep from getting stuck in the first place.

You're Keeping Everything In Your Head

Keeping everything you need to do in your head is a guaranteed recipe for confusion. The problem with this is that you can't possibly remember everything you need to be doing. You can't see how it should be laid out or in what order things should go. You need to get it out of your head & down onto paper. You can use regular old paper or you can do it on the computer. It doesn't matter as long as you get it all out. Take 10 minutes & write down EVERYTHING you can think of that you need to do. And not just business tasks either. Anything & everything that is weighing on you. Get it all out. Once you've got it written down on your paper, you're going to need to organize it a bit because I'm sure it's a mess! The next step is to look at what you've written down & categorize it. Your categories need to be as follows:

tasks you can get done in 15 minutes or less {cleaning the toilet, sending an email, engaging with followers on Facebook}
tasks that someone else can do {taking out the trash, automating social media updates}
tasks that have to be completed within the week {writing blog posts, making new products, packaging & shipping orders}
tasks that can get done within the month {designing new products, working on next month's marketing plan, improving your skills}

Once you've got tasks in the appropriate categories, it's time to figure out which tasks are most important & need to be focused on first.

Prioritizing Tasks Will Give You Clear Direction

The tasks in your 15 minute category & your delegating category speak for themselves so you don't need to spend time there. Start with your weekly task category. What is most important? Which of the tasks on your list are going to give you the most bang for your buck? Which tasks are going to get you closer to your goals for the month? Label each task in order of importance. Once you have that done you'll know what to do first. Same goes for your monthly task category! Just repeat this process for it too. If you'd like some more fantastic tips on prioritizing tasks, check out my buddy April's new video on Blacksburg Belle about prioritizing your goals! They're spot on!

Creating A Schedule That Actually Works

Here's where you put everything all together. At this point you need to grab your planner or pull up your online calender. Schedule all the tasks in your 15 minute category first. They need to get done today, right away. Next schedule the tasks in your delegating category. All you need to do here is tell whoever is responsible what to do & let them take it from there. Now look at your weekly task category & start scheduling those tasks into your planner for this week. Be sure you start with the most important tasks first. This should be easy since you've prioritized them already. Lastly follow up with your monthly goals & you should be set. Now of course you're going to need to add things into your schedule as they come up, but if you follow the principles I've talked about here you'll be good to go! Good luck getting organized. It makes life & running a business much, much easier! Do you have tips on staying organized in your business? Let's talk about them in the comments below! Oh yeah! If you liked today's post, be sure to share it on your social media sites!

Meagan Visser is a creative business coach who helps moms learn to managing their creative business with motherhood. She's the creator of Creative Business Marketing 101 - a course to help creatives get their marketing back on track. Connect with her at MeaganVisser.com & on Facebook & Twitter.

More in this series:

Week One: Passion Driven Business
Week Two: Establishing Your Brand
Week Three: To Wholesale or Not
Week Four: Getting It Done - Scheduling Tips with Meagan Visser

Week Five: The Art of Being Different with Tracey Selingo

Week Six: Identifying Your Target Market with Noisette Academy