Streamlining 101 (aka Automation’s Fraternal Twin)

A few posts back I went into detail about what automation is and how you can use it to your advantage as a 9-5 employee that also blogs on the side.  Automation saves you time because it steps in when you don’t have the time to step in yourself.  Of course EVERYTHING can’t be automated (boooo!!)...you still have to be involved in your blog processes at some point.  The best way to be involved and stay on track is to streamline your process then establishing workflows as a result.  Streamline things that you can’t automate so that you can use your time more efficiently on the things that you have to touch.  Then when you add Workflows into the mix, it turns into the productive trifecta! I consider Streamlining the fraternal twin of Automation because they are both cut from the same cloth (saving time), but they look a little different.

Streamlining is to improve the efficiency of a process, business or organization by simplifying or eliminating unnecessary steps, using modernizing techniques, or taking other approaches (credit).  This means to determine the best way to complete a task and stick to it if it’s giving you the results that you want.  If you’re constantly tweeting but aren’t seeing any traction from it, remove it from your process and put that extra time into something that works.  Once you have streamlined a process, you begin putting each piece together to create a workflow.  A Workflow is like a recipe.  You can have all of the ingredients, but without the instructions you won't have a meal.  Once you establish your workflow, you are on the road to consistency and we all know that consistency is one aspect that contributes to growth.

So how exactly can you streamline your blogging process?  Here are 6 things that you can do to get it together:

1 / Keep notes for brain dumping in Evernote

Notebooks, while cute and fun, are not as effective as a digital note system.  I used to be a huge advocate of writing in notebooks to keep all of my thoughts together, but the problems came when I was unable to find a particular note that I had written some time ago.  Flipping though pages and pages of notes to find one things is just not feasible.  While I still have a physical notebook, I rarely use it because my digital note taking system got my life all the way together!  I use Evernote for all of my ideas whether it’s blog posts, products, services, course ideas, email ideas, or even goals.  I love using a digital note taking system because I can easily organize all of my notes into notebooks AND I can do a keyword search if I’m trying to find a specific note.

So with this, brain dumping is now awesome.  Brain Dumping sounds like a huge mess (I mean, a dump is a place where a bunch of crap collects, right?), so bring some method to the madness by organizing the proverbial dump.  Group all of your ideas into categories and keep them nice and organized so that you can easily reference and find them in the future.

Pro Tip: If you still like to write notes or for some reason are unable to access your phone to add a note, you can always write them down then take a photo of it to upload to Evernote at a later time.  I do this as well and it’s just another way to keep all ideas organized.  Add a tag to the photo note so that you know what it’s about and can easily find it with a search.

2 / Create + follow Workflows in Trello

I’m late to the Trello train, but better late than never, eh? Trello is a web and Mobile App that you can use to create and organize workflows.  You can also create checklists, schedule due dates and invite people to join your boards (great for collaborating on a project!).  Before using it, I had a general blogging process, but I would still forget to do a few small things (like create new tweets for blog posts in advance, plan out Instagram stories content, etc.).  Now that I have created a workflow, there is no excuse why I would forget a step in my blogging process.  If you don’t currently have an official blogging workflow and have no clue what all you should be doing before, during and after a post is live, I have created a done-for-you Trello blogging workflow that you can use to get some clarity.  Click below for those gems!

If you know your workflow, there is no excuse for skipping steps.  This doesn't just go for bloggers. If you have a business, you should also be following a workflow.  It’s only going to make your life easier.  The other great thing about establishing a workflow is that if you ever get to the point where you are hiring help, they will be able to follow your workflows which makes training and process replication much easier.

3 / Add tasks and subtasks to an Editorial Calendar

Rather than just adding tasks to your calendar for the day that you want to have them complete by, you should really be scheduling all of the steps that it will take to complete those tasks.  This is so you know what you need to be working on to get a task done rather than just knowing when it’s due.  Don’t just schedule the end, schedule the process. In order to get the best grip on your time, you need to plan what you are going to do from beginning to end.  For example, you may want to post your blog post on 11/10, but when are you going to type it up?  When are you going to take and edit your photos?  Asana is the free calendar tool that I use to keep my tasks to do each day organized.  One of their best features is that you can schedule subtasks to accompany one main task, this way you can truly keep an accurate schedule. In the example below, the task with the large checkbox is the main task and the tasks under it with the smaller checkboxes are the subtasks.

Scheduling tasks and subtasks will help to streamline your process because you will know what you need to be working on each day.  Schedule each step of your workflow to stay on track.

4 / Batch Processing

Batching (aka Batch Days) may be something that you have heard about around the internet a lot lately.  Well there’s good reason for that because it can save tons of time.  Batch Processing is when you dedicate a certain block of time to work on one task.  For example, when I schedule my tweets for the week, I sit down and dedicate 20 minutes to nothing but scheduling the twitter content.  Another example is that I stockpile photos for Instagram, so I dedicate a block of time over the weekend to only take various pictures to post on Instagram in the future (oh, you thought Instagram was instant? Nope, not so much anymore).  A few more examples of what you can batch is creating blog posts, planning out your IG feed for the week (I use the UNUM app for this), creating freebies, creating email marketing content, etc.  Rather than spending time doing these things randomly or at the last minute, work on a chunk at a time and be done with it for the week/month.

5 / Create templates

There are certain tasks that you do repetitively when it comes to your blog.  When it comes to design elements, this is something that you shouldn’t have to create from scratch every time.  You should make a template of your designs and use them over and over again.  Create 4 variations of a template layout so that you can keep it consistent across the web and social platforms.  For example, create templates for blog post graphics, IG stories graphic, social media graphics, etc.  If you currently have a design program on your computer, awesome!  Make the templates using that.  If you do not have your own program, I recommend using Canva. This is another web/mobile app in which you can create various types of graphics for free.

Pro Tip: I own design programs and use them to create my templates, but I still use Canva as a backup just in case I want to post something but cannot access my laptop.  Just create a Canva version of your templates so that you can access them on the go.

 

6 / Create a FAQ page rather than answering the same questions constantly

You know those questions that people always tend to ask you on your blog comments, Instagram, wherever?  Rather than giving the same spiel to everyone, why not create an FAQ or similar page answering all of the questions?  This way, you can direct the inquirers to your website which in turn means more traffic added to your numbers!

You may be thinking, “I have no questions from readers/followers”.  This may be true, but your NICHE has general questions that people tend to ask.  Let’s use a food blogger for example.  Maybe they don’t get questions in their blog comments, but they know that people want to know the best knife set to purchase on a budget, or how to sautée vegetables properly.  Frequently asked questions that people want to know related to your niche can also appear on your FAQ page.  No clue what the popular questions are?  Use Google Trends to get some ideas.  Creating a FAQ page will save you time because your response to their questions going forward will be something like “Hi! Please check out my FAQ page for a detailed response to your question” rather than cutting into your time to reply to emails using the same general response.  Typing emails can take a while especially when you’re trying to be helpful and provide specific details.

---

I hope some of these ideas resonated with you!  Saving time is something that I love to teach individuals how to do.  Now go ahead and start saving some time!

10 Ways to Stay Productive in Your Side Hustle While Working a 9-5

I get you.  You have a day job and a blog/business on the side that you want to turn into you main source of income.  You are trying to build your brand, readership, customers/clients, site visits, follows, etc.  The side hustle already feels like a full-time job because there are so many levels to it.  Sometimes it’s hard to stay afloat, so today I will be sharing 10 ways that you can stay productive with your side hustle while still working a 9-5.

1 / Use apps offline

Some of my most productive days have been when I didn’t have an internet or data connection.  Every blogger and entrepreneur should use apps that have the ability for you to work offline.  Working offline means that you can still use the app without internet or data connections, and when you have a connection again what you worked on will then sync to your account.  So for example, I was without power for 2 days due to hurricane Irma which meant that  I had no internet.  I was still able to work on this very blog post because I use Google Docs to create my posts anyway.  I typed my blog post and once I had an internet connection again, everything that I typed was then synced to my Google Docs account.  This is also a great feature to have when you want to work on tasks on your breaks at work.  If your employer doesn’t allow you to connect to the wifi on your personal devices, you can still use the apps and get things done without the connection.

Pro Tip:  Most productivity and business apps these days have offline capabilities, so do your research and make sure that the app that you are going to download has this.  For me, offline capabilities is high on the need list when it comes to apps.
 

2 / Take advantage of breaks

So speaking of breaks, this is a prime time when you should be working on your side-hustle tasks.  Whether that be typing a blog post, planning out social media content, writing emails to your email list, planning out products/services to launch, etc. you can totally do these things on your morning, afternoon and/or lunch breaks.  You don’t have to be all work and no play during your breaks (I believe in a healthy balance of the two), but you should plan out which breaks you will use to solely work on your stuff.

Related: Tasks that you can complete on work breaks

3 / Dedicate time in the morning or evening to work on tasks

I am a night owl...there’s no doubt about it.   Some people believe that you should get up super early in the morning to work on things, but I’m an advocate of working whenever it’s best for you.  If that happens to be 5am or 10pm, it’s fine either way.  It’s impossible and unrealistic to fit everyone into the mold of being a morning person.  I get my best work done late at night *shrugs*.  Whatever works best for you, dedicate the time to it and do it.  You should dedicate at least one hour to work on your blog/biz to consistently mark things off of your to-do list.

4 / Use automation

This is the secret sauce for EVERYONE that has a blog/biz and a 9-5...but not everyone taps into it.  Your commute time and work hours take a huge chunk of your day away.  The best way to stay productive is by having robots work on tasks for you when you don’t have the time or ability to do it yourself.  Things like posting to social media, tagging people in your email list based on products/services purchased, being notified when a specific email is received, doing market research, etc.  There are so many possibilities when it comes to automation, so use the resources to help you stay on top of it all.

Related: Automation 101

5 / Streamline your workflow

If you think about your 9-5 and the different processes that come together to complete a task, you will realize that you are following a workflow that has been created to effectively get the job done (that’s their intention at least!).  Follow suit for your own blog/biz and create a streamlined workflow.  This will take some trial and error, but once you have outlined the flow that works best for you, it will be golden!  This is because your process will be documented and predictable and predictability saves time.  No more time wasted trying to remember how or what you did in your process that one time that worked so well.  By streamlining your workflow, there will be less room for detours.

---

"Major companies use workflows.  You should use them in your side hustle, too!"

click to tweet that!

---

6 / Get an accountability partner

A great way to stay on track is to have someone else on your side that makes sure you stay on task.  It’s way too easy to get off task and if you have no one to answer to it doesn’t help the procrastination situation.  By having an accountability partner, you have someone else that is going to check up on you and make sure that you are staying on track.  My friend Katrina of the Chic Little House blog is my accountability partner, so we keep each other motivated and encouraged to keep going. It’s nice to have someone to chat with that understands the struggles of a side-hustler and to exchange ideas with one another.  Don’t limit yourself to having a local partner.  Katrina lives across the country, but we always make time to chat via Google Hangouts or Facetime.

7 / Use digital organization

There are two types of people in the world...those who like writing notes on paper and those who like to keep track of things digitally.  I used to be a paper note taker, but when I realized how convenient and organized my note taking process had become when I tried it digitally, I switched over.  Now the only thing that I use my notebooks for is to sketch ideas for new products or anything else that needs to be sketched.  If for some reason I am unable to add a note to Evernote (the only way is if my battery was dead; you can work Offline in Evernote!), I would write it down and take a picture of it to upload to my account later.  So digital organization is better when trying to run a blog/biz because you need to be flexible and ready for anything.  This means if you need to write an idea for a blog post but no paper/pen is handy, you would have to rely on your memory until you got the writing tools.  With digital notes, you can add them quickly to an app and be on your way.  This also is helpful in the reverse situation where you have a note written somewhere but cannot find it or cannot access it.  If you had digital notes, you could access them anytime from anywhere.  You can also search for keywords in your digital notes...good luck trying to do that in a notebook.

8 / Set deadlines

It’s easy to get caught up in the “Oh I’m so busy” phrase...but are you busy working on busy work or productive work?   There's a distinct difference between the two. Busy work is work that you do that has no true purpose or deadline. You may think it's important, and though it may be slightly important there are things more important that you keep putting off. An example is creating a new business card for yourself. Though business cards are important, they aren't as important as finalizing your sales page for a new product or service, planning out your blog posts for the month or writing an email funnel. These are examples of things that are going to either bring you more coins or more traffic to your website.  You also need to set hard deadlines for your tasks. Not doing so leaves too much room to procrastinate. If you're working on something that's going to launch “in the spring”, you're not being real with yourself and you're causing a disservice to your blog/biz.  Set a date to it so you know it's real.

9 / Plan content in advance

We all know the old saying “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”  It’s true.  When it comes to trying to juggle your day job with your side-hustle, the only way to succeed (or at least stay on top of things) is to pre-plan your content.  This means to plan your blog posts, social media content, product/service launch schedule, etc.  Planning your content in advance enables you to be consistent and you don't have to scrounge around trying to think of content to post.  By pre-planning my content, I feel a great sense of relief because I know what to expect and I know what I need to be working on.  Trying to progress in anything in life with no plan is a recipe for failure and sure to waste valuable time on things that don’t fit your ultimate goal.

10 / Change your mindset

This means to treat your side hustle as a main hustle.  When you treat it as a side hustle, things tend to fall to the wayside and you become inconsistent.  You don’t take it seriously and becoming stagnant is the end result.  In order to progress, you need to get a little more serious about what you want to do and ultimately take yourself seriously.  This is something that I also struggle with, but I have been making a conscious effort to get it together and I’ve been seeing great results because of it.  The sooner you get your mind right, the better!

I hope this post has been helpful and maybe you even learned something new!  If you liked this information, comment below to let me know.

---