If you new around here, Hi, I am Jordan and I am a Minnesota based Wedding and Elopement Photographer…. and I also work full-time at a bank. When I first started my photography journey I was still a student in high school and I only worked part time. When I got to attending my photography program in college, I had designated time to shoot and work on sessions. After college I worked a delivery job where I made my own schedule. But once I moved to Fergus Falls to live with my now husband, I had to start working a new full time 9-5 (because my beloved grocery delivery job was unavailable here and you know bills to pay). So I had to learn how to manage my time quickly if I wanted my business to stay afloat and continue to grow.

My days (especially in the summer) can get super long and busy. Often times I am leaving my shift, changing in the bathroom and driving right to a session location. So somewhere in all the craziness I had to find balance. Because once busy season hits, you have to stay on top of you work.

After my first year of working full time and running a business I realized I needed to implement some systems into my workflow to help my manage my time and keep my sanity. So over the slower season I worked on automating different part of my business and creating workflow systems for my clients to make both of our lives easier.

The first thing that has saved me so much time and has allowed me is automating my content posts. I post on multiple platforms such as this blog, Instagram and Facebook as well as my Pinterest. And having posts and content scheduled in advance has been monumental in keeping my online presence updated. My scheduled content is creating about a month in advance, so one day a month I sit down and write blogs, create pin and schedule social media posts. The tools I use to automate my content has been game changer, I currently use Canva to create and schedule my pins and posts. And for my blogs I use Squarespace's internal blog system. Both of these have been super easy to use and I love having them in my tool belt.

The second thing I changed in my business to help my manage my time is having a strict schedule. I designate the same time everyday to my business. And on certain days I work on different things. For example my Monday’s I use to update my bookkeeping and business finances and Tuesday’s I work on any client projects like albums or timelines. So during my daily work time I start with emails, move onto my task and then end with any editing I have. Once I created my strict schedule my planning and organizing improved drastically. Instead of trying to juggle things at random times I created the space to sit down and get things done.

Thirdly I started using AI, as much as I don’t really follow trends, jumping on the AI train is game changer. I started using an AI image culling system which saves me HOURS of time when sorting through galleries. I also will use AI to help me write blogs and captions as well as editing in itself to help me remove things in images or to copy settings from image to image. Using AI has allowed me to have more time with my family and to spend more time working on more in my business than just what I have to do.

Those are three things that I use to help my balance my time as a business owner and a full-time worker. But to make it even more simple here is a list of things you can try to help you create a better work-life balance as well

• Batch Work

  • batch working is that certain day schedule I talked about earlier, dividing up your work tasks into categorizes and working on certain categories on specific days is super helpful in getting things done and not being overwhelmed .

• Strict Boundairies

  • Having strict boundaries is crucial to maintaining sanity with all of the hats you wear. When its time to spend time with family, I don’t think about work. When it’s time to work, I get sh*t done. I do not schedule shoots over family time, and I don’t let my unavailable time become available.

• Automate

  • Automate what you can, as soon as you can. It makes life much simpler and gives your brain the space to be more creative and have more ideas when it is not worried about doing everything all the time. Give yourself the break you deserve.

• Put the phone away

  • yes, feel called out by this statement, I am guilty too, the phone is a distraction, and yes scrolling through reels is more fun than working. But trust me, putting your phone away makes a HUGE difference. I either give mine to by husband to keep from me, or I leave it in a different room and I need to get stuff done.

• Use a timer

  • I saw this trick on social media and immediately started using it. What you do is you set a timer for a certain amount of time and in that time you do as much as you can. Once the time is up, move on to the next task. I use timers for when I am doing emails so I don’t overthink what I am saying, when I am editing, and even now as I write this blog so that I stay on task.

Creating a good time management system for yourself is crucial in balancing running and growing a business and still having to work full time. By having these systems and rules for myself has really allowed me to still enjoy life with my family, not be cranky at my day job and given me time to continue growing my business and serving my clients at full capacity.