Episode 49: TpT Business Planning Notebook Update

I have been playing around with how to create a foolproof system for me to work more efficiently on my TpT store during the hours I have.  Over the last several months I have moved my planning into a composition notebook, that I keep with my laptop at all times. 

I wanted to show you the evolution of this notebook over the last few months.  Hopefully, looking at the system I use will help you develop a system that works for you too.

I started my notebook with a section for each part of my business.  Blogging, YouTube, Products, CEO Teacher School, and a to-do list.  By creating this notebook I no longer had notes and scraps of paper everywhere.  Sometimes I will still grab an index card or post it, but I try to stick to my notebook as much as possible.  I don’t want to lose the small list I was working off of. 

In August I want to try to bring all of these sections together with my monthly goals and calendar.  So I tried something.  I turned to the next clean pages and made a plan.  I planned out my YouTube videos, blogs, and products, and monthly goals.  I laid it out neatly and sketched a calendar.  Then I started to put my goals on the calendar.

In the next few pages, I put my SEO research and product details that I thought I might need easy access to without opening all sorts of different files.

I liked how it worked out and helped organize me for the month.  It kept my goals at the forefront and focus on what I did each day.  As soon as I sat down to work I opened my calendar to see my working plan for the day and make adjustments based on how I did with yesterday’s goals.

After working with this layout for a month I decided to keep working with this system.  One thing I like about this system is that if I have just a little bit of a car ride I can grab my notebook and work on organizing and planning tasks even without wifi.   It also gives me a place took keep any extra notes I want offline.  This would probably be a bad thing if I had a team working with me, but since it’s just me it works out great.

This September, I did what any TpT creator would do, and set up a fancy layout for my notebook. I made a sheet to track blogs, videos, and products for the month.  I left a space to write down goals above the calendar that I print out.  I’m just gluing it into my notebook right now.  I really like notebooks much better than binders so I use them more.  I don’t know why I like notebooks better but I do. 

I know this system is going to continue to evolve as I work with it, but I’ve felt less overwhelmed by having this in place

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