I’ll be packing up today and heading out tonight on my way to Northern California. This trip was actually planned much further in advance than most trips I’ve taken before. I attribute that to the organizational skills that running my business has required me to learn. Before I had my business, everything I did was spur-of-the-moment. That’s no exaggeration. My family has a reputation for booking flights the night before the trip.
In some ways, that spontaneity has served me well and been quite fun. In others, it’s been hectic and stressful. Before I set schedules so regularly and so far in advance, I was pretty much free to do whatever I felt like doing each day. The type of work I did before allowed me to set my own schedule, but rarely required any extended planning. I liked that freedom, but I often found myself without desire to do anything at all. On top of that, everyone knew that I didn’t schedule in advance (and that I’m a bit of a pushover when it comes to family), so it was easy to take advantage of my free time. Now that I set appointments in advance that others rely on, it’s much easier to say “no” to people. Structuring my time brings with it its own stresses, but, from my experience, is actually a lot less stressful than having no structure. I suppose this is only true as long as I keep organized, though.
Google Now, Inbox, and Calendar have been HUGE boons in terms of organization. Setting reminders in Now, Inbox creating automatic reminders from my email, and Calendar’s cross-platform scheduling tools are invaluable to me. I suspect my organizational toolkit and techniques will evolve quite a bit as I grow my business, but I imagine these assets are here to stay.
I just need to remember how much fun spontaneity can be as I work on my scheduling skills. I’ve seen plenty of people get lost in their planning and feel like they can’t do anything just because they feel like it–even when they’re the one setting the schedule. I think that’s a shame, and I don’t want to end up like that. That’s part of why I wanted to go into business for myself in the first place; I want to be able to free up my schedule just a little bit in advance to go do something fun with my girlfriend. With any luck, I’ll master these skills and continue to love what I do for as many years ahead as I can plan.
Since I’m going back to California, here’s a gallery from my main site with a few photos from around the state: