MY COLOR-CODED CALENDAR

 

Why do I still use a physical planner?



In these days of advanced technology with many organizational tools at my finger-tips, I still use a physical planner to schedule the processing of my orders.  There are several reasons I do this.

1.          I am a very visual person.  I need to “SEE” my work schedule.  It is comforting to me to know that I have it all planned out and to know that I can or can’t take a day off if I need to.  If I have something come up and need to move stuff around, I can look at my calendar and see that I only have 1 item to sew and can easily get that done on a different day.  However, if the only day left to squeeze that item in to already has 6 items on the schedule, I know immediately that it needs to stay right where it is.

2.          All of my items require multiple days to complete.  There are 3 stages to most of my items:  1) cut and prep, 2) sewing, 3) shipping.  Each of these stages is color coded on my planner (magenta is cut and prep, orange is for sewing, and teal is for shipping).  There are some other steps to some items (pink is embroidery and green is for photos), but I don’t need those steps as often.

3.          Knowing that my orders are logged and scheduled to complete on my calendar gives me a sense of control and comfort.  Before I started doing this, I was constantly stressed and worried about forgetting to do something.  I was always looking through my orders and making sure I didn’t miss one.  Now, because they are all scheduled on my planner by ship date, I am secure in the knowledge that I won’t miss a shipping deadline.

Now, you might ask why I am so worried about my shipping deadlines.  Am I worried about Etsy dinging my shop for late orders?  Well, although that is a concern, it is not my main worry.  The types of items that I sew are almost always purchased for an event my customer is attending and it is their deadline I am trying to meet...I certainly don't want them to not have the main part of the wardrobe they were planning on wearing.

Another reason I use this planner is to schedule time off.   If I have to go out of town, for example, I block out that future time and then work around it when scheduling my orders.  Sometimes I may have to turn one away, but most of the time I can schedule around that block of time without having to do that.

Follow my blog, SEWING PANTS AND COFFEE to find out what other short-cuts and processes I do in the back office of my home based sewing business.

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