Schedule a Dedicated Admin Day to Stay on Track
When my business started growing at a faster pace, all the things that weren’t client work quickly got put on the back burner. If you’re an entrepreneur you know that there are a lot of non-billable things that need to get done for your business to continue to run such as posting to social media, emailing your list, networking, continuing education, bookkeeping…..you get the point. A game changer for me was declaring Mondays as a recurring Admin Day.
In the beginning it’s tough because you feel like taking a whole day off from client work will end in catastrophe. However, I’ve found quite the opposite. I’m so much more organized and focused throughout the rest of the week. My team also has a lot more direction because I can pay more attention to what they need from me to complete their tasks. That results in more efficiency, which is always beneficial when you’re juggling multiple projects.
You can pick any day of the week as your Admin Day, but I chose Monday for two main reasons:
It eases me into a new work week
I work hard to prevent unexpected time-sensitive requests from clients (or in the case of interiors design projects, contractors), but when these requests do come up, they’re typically towards the end of the week
At SG23, Design Mondays are for working ON my business.
I’ve learned the hard way that if you let certain things go by the wayside for too long you pay for it later. Priorities tend to change a bit every few weeks, but I tend to focus on several tasks pretty consistently:
Scheduling for projects and assigning tasks to my team
Creating content for our websites
Prep for or attending interior design photoshoots
Review our marketing strategy and scheduling for social media posts including Instagram
Improve any systems we currently have in place or build out new systems
Meetings for any collaborative projects with fellow entrepreneurs
Develop proposals for prospective clients
At first, I thought dedicating an entire day to administrative tasks (including marketing) was way too much. But as you can see that day gets eaten up pretty quickly. I honestly thought how I ever managed without an Admin Day.
Getting Rid of Distractions is Key
If I’m being very disciplined about my Admin Mondays, I won’t check my email until 4pm. I know that sounds crazy, but I’m an interior architect and designer—I’m not saving lives. Boundaries are so important. If there’s an “emergency” (which, let’s be honest, how often is it really an emergency), I’m sure my client will call the office. Here’s the secret sauce, if your business is running like a well oiled machine, your clients will rarely feel the need to call you. If you’re still skeptical, give your Admin Day a go and see what happens.
I also don’t schedule any client meetings on Mondays because I know that if I have a meeting to worry about, that’ll take precedence over any administrative tasks I need complete. Also, who wants to worry about a meeting or presentation over the weekend? Nobody.
I’ve found that one of the biggest benefits of Admin Mondays has been getting all administrative tasks off my plate so I can fully focus on client work the rest of the week. In essence, my clients benefit from Admin Monday too!
