Planning - The Efficient/Creative

You Need A Project Plan And Here’s Why

by Kate Hutcheson | Oct 3, 2019 | Launching, Planning

If there is one professional piece of wisdom I can bestow upon my clients in this lifetime, let it be this: In order to be successful in your launch, you need a project plan. Sure, it’d be nice if you committed the “why” to memory (partly because I outline it so nicely for you here, and also because it will be useful for you personally in the long run) but truly, if you take away one thing, just remember you need a plan. Done. Period. End of sentence.

Plans are awesome.

Plans operate as well-lit, spacious express highways headed straight towards your successful launch. They give you guidance. They also have room for you to change lanes, speed up or slow down as necessary. And most importantly, they get you where you need to go in the most efficient way possible.

Ah, reader. I love plans (and a good analogy, clearly.) 🛣️

By making a plan you are effectively giving yourself…

Clarity. 💎 You’ll encounter fewer obstacles as you work your pre-planned system, which will also effectively elevate other areas of your work, too. A plan will help you get to know your client better, strengthen your messaging, and aid in more powerful marketing.
Relaxation. ☀️ Or more specifically: the gift of time management. Once you identify what needs to happen and when, you will consequently be identifying time slots that call for work and time slots that allow for rest. With this peace of mind, you’ll avoid that wake-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-panic that happens when you realize you’ve forgotten something important, because it will already be accommodated for in the plan.
Customization. 📝 By crafting your own, one-of-a-kind plan, you are innately giving yourself permission to do it the way you want to in a style that works best for your business brain and heart. Following someone else’s template or simply winging it doesn’t cater to the unique, special things that make you such an awesome business owner!
Momentum. 🏃‍♀️ With a clear goal in sight and thoughtfully-designed milestones laid out along the way, you will have confidence with each step you take forward. This will also make it easier to check items off as you go. Once you hit “launch,” you’ll be able to look back and say “Wow, I did all of that?”

Without a plan you are leaving yourself vulnerable to…

Confusion.😖 How many times have you been in the shower thinking about the work day ahead and feel crystal clear on how you’re going to tackle it all, and then by the time you get to your work desk, all you can remember is “check inbox” and “make coffee”? My guess is: a lot. That’s how the human brain works. By leaving all of your launch steps in your head without organizing them on paper (computer, or other) you’re risking getting lost in the mental shuffle!

Overworking.🤯 Sure, the main point of a plan is to make sure you achieve what you’ve set out to achieve, but an added benefit is a plan allows you to work effectively and efficiently. Without one, you risk missing key steps that then have to be dealt with last minute, overworking certain elements that really should be left alone, and ultimately chewing into precious weekend, holiday, or family hours that should be set aside for R&R.

Decision-making paralysis. 😵 Without a game plan, you might find yourself overthinking or overanalyzing ALL OF THE THINGS that need to be done, making it virtually impossible to start any single task. Feeling like everything must happen at once can effectively shut a project down. Putting 10 percent into a hundred things only moves the needle forward so much, which might make you say, “Ugh, this isn’t worth it!” and scrap the project all-together.

Wasting resources 🤑 like time and money on items that feel really important in the moment but you could have avoided had you given yourself the opportunity to see them coming down the pipeline.

Now, you might be sitting there reading this thinking, “This is all well and good, but I don’t even know where to start! I know what I want to happen, but I’m having a really hard time identifying my very first step, let alone how many steps there will be in total!”

Yup, I get that. Here is what I recommend: As soon as you are done reading this article and ready to start your really impressive, super responsible plan-making process, take a big piece of paper (or big empty Word Document) and give yourself time to have an almighty, cathartic, *brain dump.*

A brain dump is when you take every single thought in your head as it relates to your project and write it down as it comes. Don’t judge it. Try not to analyze it. Just write it.

Once you have everything bouncing around in your brain in one piece, you will have effectively made mental space to begin the task at hand and have a frame of reference for the scope of this project. With everything in front of you and a clear mind to back you up, you can fully begin to get organized.

That, and you can call me.

I’d love to help you plan your next big project and Craft a Custom Launch to your specific needs. As part of our 3-hour planning intensive, we can walk through your own glorious brain dump together. With all of the pieces floating beautifully in front of us, I’ll help your create a project plan that makes your business-building brain feel like it went to the spa. And that’s just one small piece of all the goodness you’ll get out of it!

What Is a Back Wall (and Why Do You Need One?)

by Kate Hutcheson | Sep 20, 2019 | Planning, Productivity

When my husband was in graduate school for English, he had a professor named Chris Bachelder who, among other things, introduced him to the concept of the “back wall”. This is one of those ideas that has now weaseled its way into our relationship short-hand, so it’s a concept I think about a lot.

In writing (movies, TV, or literature), the idea of the “back wall” is that the reader or audience should always know what the characters are working toward. In other words, you should have some idea where the story is headed and it should be clear that the audience will know when the character has gotten there.

This isn’t always the main plot point, either. Rather, it’s the most immediate problem or question that needs to be resolved. So good stories will generally have multiple back walls. And when one is reached, another one will be there to replace it, just further away.

LET ME TELL YOU A STORY THAT WILL HELP EXPLAIN WHAT THIS HAS TO DO WITH PRODUCTIVITY.

My family went down to Nashville for a month to stay with my (incredibly generous and patient) parents. While we were there, my mom had given each of us a to-do list to help her prep for a big party they were hosting.

My (beautiful, wonderful) mother is… singular in the way she approaches delegation.

When I ask her what she needs me to do, it will often turn into a much longer conversation that sounds something like, “Well, we need A, B, and C, but when the cleaners come, that means that B is then going to need D and E, but we won’t know until later, and it will just be easier if I do A, and I think your dad said he might take care of C.”

Which means I’m usually left sputtering in my head, “So… what do you need me to DO?”

“I need a back wall,” I told Cory as he and I were working through our respective to-do lists. “I need to know exactly what she needs and what the end point is, otherwise I feel like everything she needed is only half-done because I’m not clear on what she’s asking me to do.”

In other words, we needed clear direction and we needed to know when the work would be done.

This is not only a super helpful reminder for any of you who delegate work to VAs or other assistants, but it’s also helpful in your daily to-do lists. Does your day, week, or quarter have clear direction? Are your goals specific? Do you know when you’ll have reached them?

MAKING THESE DISTINCT AND CLEAR HAS A HUGE IMPACT IN YOUR MOMENTUM IN YOUR WORK.

Cory recently told me that the way he works through to-do lists is that he will keep adding items to his list as he works through it. And what this means is that by the time he finishes the 10 items he expected to get done, when he looks at his list, there are 25 more items on it.

It exhausts him and makes him feel like he will never get done. He never gets that feeling of accomplishment, of a job well done. That little shot of dopamine that tells your brain, “Hey, good work!”

He needs a back wall.

Deciding your back wall for the day can be as simple as deciding your top three (or 5… or 1, even) priorities for the day, then knowing that if you finish those and that’s all you can handle for the day, you can stop. Or you can set a new back wall and keep moving.

I recently sat in on a webinar led by one of my favorite business coaches and humans, Michelle Ward (The When I Grow Up Coach). She reminded us in the webinar of that handy little “45-minute timer” tip.

Decide that you’re going to work on something for just 45 minutes. It’s a short enough time that it feels manageable, but a long enough time to actually accomplish some work.

Not only is that so true, but it’s also a great example of instituting a back wall. The end of that 45 minutes is your back wall, and when you get there, you get to choose whether or not to set a new back wall. AND when you get there, give yourself a pat on the back and acknowledge what you accomplished!

So what’s your back wall for the day? Hit “reply” and let me know

What Is A Business Launch? – The Nuts & Bolts Of Getting Your Offer Out There

by Kate Hutcheson | Sep 20, 2019 | Launching, Planning

There’s no such thing as stupid questions, only fear-based insecurities that can sometimes come with your first business launch. Hey, it happens. Being a business owner or entrepreneur comes with a lot of firsts, and you might spend your first year(s!) reinventing all kinds of wheels over and over again. There will the challenges and problems that have obvious and easy solutions, and there will be things that are seemingly so simple that bog you down much longer than you anticipated.

It’s ok, it’s part of the whole “being in charge” thing, and asking a question doesn’t make you stupid. It makes you smart. It means you are arming yourself with the information needed to make you stronger, better, more efficient, more creative…

In this spirit, let’s answer one of the “stupid” questions I get all of the time: What is a business launch?

Hey — great question, I’m glad you asked.

Here is the short, fast and dirty answer: A business launch is characterized by the action of putting anything new out into the world. It could be a new program, service, product, or the announcement of your business in its totality. Anytime you put a date on the calendar with the intention to “announce your new THING!,” that is your launch date.

In all of my experience as a professional project manager, I’ve boiled down the four basic ingredients I think every launch should include to yield the greatest success. (Sure, have I seen people wing it before? Yup. Do I recommend it? Nope.) If you’re new to the business launching idea but know you have something to offer, grab your favorite note-taking tool.

To set yourself up for a successful business launch, you will want these four things:

A clear, tangible goal, or what I like to call “the thing.” The more specific, the better! It must be something you can control and doesn’t rely on outside factors falling into place in order to become a reality. When identifying your goal, it should almost always include a verb! It will sound something like, “Finish my website redesign with new images, branding, and copy.” Or, “Open a group program for my ideal clients to xyz…”
Clarity about what your “thing” is, and more specifically, how it’s going to work. You can’t launch something if you don’t know what it is, how people are going to get it, and how you’re going to give it to them! This requires planning up top and is where you will put the bulk of your energy in the beginning.
An execution roadmap and game plan — This is the how. What are the task items required to make your launch real? As an example, if you’re launching a website, what are the pieces you need to assemble before it can go live? (Graphics, copywriting, logo?) The more detailed and clear you can get on your roadmap, the less unexpected challenges will pop up along your way to launching!
A sense of the obstacles to come — Sure, this one is tricky if you’ve never launched before. How can you know what you don’t know, right? I hear ya, but there are a few things you can do to set yourself up for success. Try getting really honest with yourself about the pieces of your work that excite you and the parts that you know are energy sucks. For example, if you’re offering a group program but admin stuff isn’t your strong suit, set aside extra time in your roadmap to onboard your clients and get all of the information you will need from them. This way, you are full steam ahead when it’s time to get to the pieces of your offer that you love!

The great news is, it’s really hard for a launch to flat-out fail. Once your “thing” is out there — you’ve launched, baby! Consider yourself in business! While there are loads of variables we can use to measure its success (like positive feedback, gaining new clients, and making money), the only thing that notes a true failure is if you didn’t launch at all.

Even if a launch is delayed — and girl, that happens — that’s ok. The finish line is still coming, it’s just a little further away than you might have anticipated. Listen, there is a reason people pay other people to help them project manage their launches in essentially every industry imaginable. That’s because it is nuanced. Each launch is different. Each successful execution requires different steps. Every business owner is unique.

If you know you are ready to launch your “thing” but aren’t quite clear with the what, how, and when… I know just the place to start.

Check out my Craft Your Custom Launch program and see how together we can get really clear on all of the pieces you need to have a wildly successful launch. I know every business launch is different, which is why this offer is so customized. I will help you gain clarity around your goal, become crystal clear on your offer, create an individualized roadmap of everything that needs to happen to get it out there, and a jumpstart on some of the obstacles lingering in the business-building wings. At the end, you’re going to love your launch, and then we can do a happy dance.

How I plan my week (so nothing falls through the cracks)

by Kate Hutcheson | Jul 19, 2019 | Goal-Setting & Habit-Building, Planning, Productivity

If you’ve been hanging out with me (virtually) for any length of time, then you probably know I’m a big fan of time blocking (and its time-management cousin, time-batching) as a way to help business owners get control of their time and improve work-life balance. If you’re not familiar with time blocking, it basically just means setting aside blocks of time for a specific purpose.

Today I wanted to give you a super-quick visual to show you how I create my own schedule each week in advance to make sure every client is getting the hours and attention they need (along with all the other people in my life—such as my family— who also want attention).

Create your own blocked-time schedule

For a lot of reasons, I recommend doing your time blocking in the actual calendar app you use the most. I use Google calendar.

It can sync to your scheduling software to prevent surprise appointment scheduling
You can easily share it with your partner or other people who need to stay informed about your availability
It’s SO quick to schedule and easy to color code (if you’re into that sort of thing, which I am)
It’s super visual, obvs

So, here you have it, what a week at The Efficient/Creative looks like:

(with names and locations removed, of course)

How to prioritize when you create your schedule

Depending on what I’ve got going on, I might set this up on a Friday afternoon for the week ahead (or 2 weeks ahead), or it may be first thing Monday morning of that week. I know I have certain clients with specific hourly requirements, so I’ll block those out first. Then I’ll add fill in the times as needed for other things I’ve got to get done that week, making SURE to set aside time for my own business admin (#REQUIRED).

You can see that I’ve got a pretty consistent hard stop time of 5pm. I really don’t like working in the evenings (#beyourownboss), so blocking out my time this way—in advance—is crucial for me to protect my family time (and the all-important knitting time).

You know I’m obsessed with productivity and time-management, right? I *love* hearing about the strategies other people use! Got a system that works for you? Hit those comments and let me hear about it!

1 Simple Way to Avoid Burnout When You Work from Home

by Kate Hutcheson | Jul 19, 2019 | Goal-Setting & Habit-Building, Planning, Productivity

Whether you work at home as a remote job or you own your own business, the fantasy (or reality) of having control over your time is a huge appeal of working from home. After all, one of the great work-from-home benefits is the ability to create your own schedule, right?

Have small kids at home and you can only work while they’re sleeping? Go for it.

Have a second, more traditional job with odd hours? No problem.

You can do SO many work-from-home jobs at literally any time of the day or night!

Which brings us to one of the biggest dangers of working for yourself: burnout. There’s a reason that working from home can lead to depression, loneliness, and anxiety. And burnout can be a big component of that.

When you can work any time, it’s easy to work all the time.

Many of us started working from home so we could theoretically work anywhere, but it’s too easy to become just as chained to our desks at home as we were in the office. Worse, we can become even more chained to our desks because they’re ALWAYS NEAR.

Work all the hours and you’re setting yourself up for serious fatigue and isolation.

Here is 1 simple way to avoid burnout when you work from home.

There are 2 methods that I highly recommend you use in your weekly schedule to set boundaries and ensure that you keep a healthy mental work-life balance.

Hard stops
Time blocking/batching

Since I’ve already written about time-blocking (which you can read more about here), I’m going to talk a little more today about having a hard stop.

Having a hard stop simply means deciding on a time that you’ll stop work, then STOPPING work at that time. Follow-through is the hardest (and most important) part, obvs.

How to institute a hard stop in your work schedule

Like most of my time-management suggestions, it often starts with doing an audit of your time. How much time do you actually spend in each of your required categories? If you’re not sure where your time goes each week, then I recommend using Toggl to start tracking your time (it’s free and easy to use!)

Use your time audit to help you block out your week on a calendar. How much time do you need to plan to devote to each of your required categories?

Include your hard stop boundaries in your schedule

While you’re blocking your time, think about when you want your hard stop to be every day. When are you going to say, “Work time is OVER and I’m shutting my computer down”? Depending on your life, it could be a different time each day or consistent across the whole week.

Set this boundary in advance. Then honor it.

While you’re at it, make a point of communicating this boundary with everyone who might be affected.

Send an email to your clients and inform them of your set working hours
Add language to your contracts or client onboarding documents that specify the time you stop working each evening
Tell someone (like your partner) who can help you stay accountable and honor the time commitments you have to your family
Set up an out-of-office email autoresponder and turn it on every evening before you stop working

Not all boundaries are created equal (and that’s okay)

If you are someone who has to work in chunks throughout the day, you may have multiple hard stops, For instance, if you work while the kids are napping, you might say “The kids usually wake up at 2, so I’m going to stop work at 1:50.”

Or it may look like setting a certain number of hours per day that you’ll work, then stopping when you’ve reached that amount. Simple enough right?

Institute a hard stop time boundary in your work-from-home schedule and see what a difference it makes in how you feel about your work. Has a hard stop helped you avoid burnout in your business? Scroll to those comments and let me hear about it!

4 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Wing Your Launch & Make A Plan Instead

by Kate Hutcheson | Jun 17, 2019 | Launching, Planning

Hey, look at you go. You’ve put in the work. You’ve put in the time. You’ve put in the energy. You have a shiny new offer or service just dying to be scooped up by your incredible clients and you can’t wait to spread the good word! Maybe you’re even toying with a launch date — dun, dun dun!

If that’s the case, you’re in the perfect position to start crafting your custom launch plan!

In a dream world, your launch will go off without a hitch and the sales will pile in. I know you’re ready for it, which is why it’s important you plan this launch right.

Yup. I said it. You’ve gotta plan. At least, I really really encourage you to.

Even if you know your business inside and out… even if you can visualize exactly how this launch is going to go down… even if you’ve improvised before and it went perfectly fine… I promise with the right kind of planning and care, you can take your launch to an entirely new level.

Here’s why it’s better to plan your launch than to simply wing it.

**Visionaries are great at visualizing, which is not the same thing as executing.**

Having the plan in your head is one thing, but seeing it through is an entirely different ball game. Creative people are incredible at seeing “the big picture,” which makes their skillset unique and helpful to their clients. However, they’re susceptible to getting tripped up when it comes to things like troubleshooting, tackling individual tasks, and managing small details.

Taking the time to map out your launch up top might feel like it’s slowing your momentum in the beginning, but in reality, it will ensure a much smoother, streamlined launch in the long run. Make the nitty-gritty of your launch important so you’ll be able to plow through each step as they come, which will ultimately give you more freedom and quicker access to the “big picture” pay off!

“Failing to plan is planning to fail.”

Do I sound like your parents? (Guess what. They were right on this one. Thanks, Mom.) No one ever had a business fail because they were too prepared. If your business model is to “just see how this goes…” you’re leaving yourself vulnerable to a wide range of roadblocks and challenges that could easily be avoided with extra project management.

Think of it as a day at the beach with or without sunscreen. Sure, in both scenarios you get the same payoff (a day at the beach), but one scenario comes with a whole lot more burn.

Never underestimate the last-minute scramble.

I’ll be honest – even with project management and launch mapping there is almost always a last minute detail or road bump that pops up and requires all of your time and all of your attention right now!!!! Do yourself a favor and get ahead of this, woman!

By leaving your launch wide open, you’re ultimately making space for business fires that will need to be put out before it’s all systems go. This means you’ll be scrambling at the last minute and burning the candle at both ends — or worse, late to launch! Give yourself the gift of time so there’s space and energy for troubleshooting if/when you need it!

Planning does not mean working harder, it means working smarter.

In all the work I’ve done with my amazing and totally different clients, I’ve found that a customized plan that caters to their unique pain points, challenges, and launches yields the most success. There is not a cookie-cutter “one-size fits all” launch plan, which is why it’s so important to take the time and identify what works best for you. Trying to mimic what you’ve seen other folks do or improvising each step in real time is ultimately neglecting one of the reasons you started your own business: to work the way that is best for you.

Trust someone who has made your launch her literal business: a customized road map to launching your offer will set you up for success (which means happy clients, a happy wallet, and a happy life)!

Let me show you how.

Planning in advance is one of the best gifts you can give your business (and yes, I have the holidays on my mind.) If you’re thinking of a November, December, or New Years launch, jump on my calendar now! I only have 1 spot available per month through the middle of Fall and we’ll need the time to get your customized launch plan in order! First-come, first-served, so don’t miss your chance!