Getting Organised // Social Media

Motivational Monday

Recently I've been struggling to feel motivated with social media. Between Facebook ads becoming even more unaffordable and Instagram announcing it's no longer going to have a chronological feed it feels like fighting a losing battle. Trying to develop content with the thought that nobody will actually see it definitely makes it difficult to find time to dedicate every day.

We decided this needed to stop as it meant our marketing was becoming a stress and a chore. I wanted to work on a strategy which meant there's not as much last minute pressure, especially on days where I have no clue what to share then end up posting nothing and feeling guilty. Consistency and content are the keywords that popped up in all of the research I did on strategy. Next up, most of the advice on 'what to post' is to try and stick to one third selling to two thirds behind the scenes (story telling, design process, personality etc). If you've been taking part in Joanne Hawker's #marchmeetthemaker on Instagram then these are the type of non selling posts you might want to share. Do try to consider your own target customers and what they'd like to see most.

Thinking about what you want to post is one thing but actually finding the time to do it is another. Thankfully, having a planner means you can be more consistent and schedule posts ahead of time, then add more daily updates when it feels natural! 

Free Social Media Planner Download. Stock Photography available at Lifestyle Photo Studio

I've created two versions of our planner which you can download for free below. If you do use either I'd love to see so please do tag us in any pics! The first is a blank canvas for you to develop your strategy from scratch, perfect if you're already posting regularly but want to keep it organised. The second is what I've worked on for myself, it's also available as a Photoshop doc here so you can break it down to suit you but I'll explain how I'm using it first.

- Plan for week ahead on a Sunday
- Schedule archive blog posts for Twitter each day
- Share motivational quotes on Monday (like one at the top of this blog)
- Create themed Treasury for Tuesday (tag other businesses)
- Write blog for Wednesday (keep blog calendar/ideas in notebook)
- Share past images for Throwback Thursday 
- Make collage of week highlights for Friday catch up
- Schedule a product each day 
- Add additional daily updates/product launches if working on something shareable

If all goes to plan then on Sundays I'll make myself a big cuppa and sit down with my planner and a notebook to prepare for the week ahead. With the help of scheduled posts (I'm using Hootsuite for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) I can create most of my content in a couple of hours. This means I can get on with designing and making during the week and only post extras when I have something I want to share rather than the usual feeling of need to share. There's no pressure as if I don't have time to post then my scheduled items will still pop up themselves, yay!

This has turned out to be a rather chunky blog post, I hope you find it useful anyway. If you'd like to download our other free planners check them out here. Let me know if you'd like to see any other downloads and printables on the blog by leaving me a comment.

Getting Organised // Spring

Last year we wrote a series of Getting Organised posts in January (which included free planner downloads). These were some of our most popular posts of all time and I've been meaning to add more to the series but not had a chance until now!

This year we've felt a bit underprepared as starting the year with a trade show meant our initial focus was short term. Now we're taking the time to reflect and plan for the future as we usually would in January. To keep us inspired we've been using Leonie Dawson's fabulous workbook and wall planner, reading How to be a Productivity Ninja by Graham Allcott and learning from the very informative Girls Mean Business.

We've also been working through the tasks we all avoid such as inbox and computer clear outs. It's so tempting to forget about these and just deal with physical mess. It's far too easy to unintentionally create a maze of folders filled with badly named files until one day you can't find something important which you're 100% certain you saved... somewhere.

If this sounds like you then we've got a handy desktop organiser download. This is a slightly simplified version of the one I created for us, I hope you find it helpful! You can download the desktop planner here or below. If you'd like to see more free downloads leave us a comment to let us know!

Getting Organised Part 3 - 6 Tips for an Organised Studio

This post is a lot later than planned which isn't very organised of us but we've been spending a lot of time on behind the scenes work which hasn't left much time for blogging and social media. Better late than never though! Today we're sharing our top 6 tips for a cute and organised studio. I could have written a lot more than 6 tips and I know that these could be equally useful for a home office, craft room, study or whatever you like to call it - we call ours a studio so that's what it'll be in this blog post. 

1. Start a 'Focus Board'

At the end of last year I found Leonie Dawson and her wonderful Life + Biz workbook. After completing this we went on to make our dream board and wanted a place to keep all of our plans and goals to remind us to stay focussed each day. We started with a giant noticeboard and painted it white so it was a lovely big blank canvas then got pinning! The top left is where a monthly focus goes, at the moment this is a big mind map of ideas for 2015 but it's soon to be a mood board for our next collection launch. Beneath we have a top 3 tasks of the day post-it space, business cards from our favourite fellow indie businesses, then our weekly planner (which you can download here). In the middle we have our social media planner, customer information and monthly goals. Finally on the right we have our dream board of what we want 2015 to look like for JillyJilly to keep us inspired. We finished this space in the studio with fun fairy lights and cute JillyJilly patterned bunting (made by Barbara from RockingStitch, fabric from Spoonflower). This space is really important for keeping our goals organised plus it's super motivational to walk into the studio and see this first thing in the morning!

2. Choose Cute Storage

This might seem a bit obvious to be a tip but what I mean is, there are lots of cute storage options that might not be meant for the office and sometimes they can be cheaper too! One of the items I get asked about most often is this trolley which we use for our stationery and craft supplies, it's from Ikea and actually meant for the kitchen. I also love using this basket cake stand for packaging extras; we keep business cards in the top, chocolates in the middle and deco tapes in the bottom - perfect! Most of the furniture in our studio is second hand but with new pastel paint, the lilac desk was my Dad's old office desk and the pink shelves on the right used to be a CD shelf in my parent's living room.

3. Make a Desktop Organiser

This makes such a huge difference when you spend a lot of time on the computer, files are much easier to find and it can help keep personal and work stuff separate too. We split ours into business sections on the left and personal on the right, finished with a motivational quote and some JillyJilly pattern!

4.Labels are your friend

Last month I went a bit label mad after having our big New Year clear out. We kept losing things and bickering over where stuff belonged but now thanks to the magic of labels, everything has a place and there's no doubt over what goes where... apart from Misc. which is just another word for mess really. We got new folders too for keeping documents separate and easy to find, they fit perfectly along with our ready made stock tubs into this pastel pink Ikea Kallax unit. 

5. Filing Cabinets can be Fun

Well, they can look fun at least! You can see the DIY tutorial here because who doesn't want a pink floral filing cabinet? Although a traditionally boring but necessary office accessory I find it much easier to stay motivated to keep our accounts organised when the storage is this cute. Plain filing cabinet from Ikea. Biscuit cushion from Nikki McWilliams.

6. Keep a Daily Desk Planner

I don't know about you but I find myself easily distracted when I'm in the middle of working on one task then remember about something else which I then worry I'll forget so stop what I'm doing and so on. Keeping a daily desk planner means I can add last minute 'to dos' to the list, with sections for things to buy (whether it's envelopes for orders or milk for tea!), emails, social media and personal. I fill this out at the start of the day with my most important tasks then add other bits I might forget later on. You can download our planner here or below if you think it might be useful!

So there you have it, 6 of our tips for a cute and organised studio! I hope they've been some help. What are your top tips for getting organised?

Getting Organised Part 2

This week our Getting Organised series looks at home organisers. I'm sure lots of you are like us and come January want to get back into eating better. I find my worst habit is waiting until I'm hungry then deciding what to eat - usually something lazy and unhealthy so meal planning is a must for me! This rainbow planner features our new fruit and veg print in the background and has boxes for 3 meals a day 7 days a week and you can download it for free here or below - yay! Planning every meal every day might be a bit over the top but it's nice to have the option for when you want to with this planner. You may have also noticed the cute matching magnets in the photo above, these are brand new to our web shop and available here (also available in 'what's for tea?' and 'what's for supper?').

As well as planning meals we've gone and made ourselves a chore list. I know this sounds incredibly dull but for me having it pinned to the kitchen noticeboard makes trying to remember to clean one less thing to think about. It helps that it's in pastel colours with a touch of polkadot! I found lots of these on Pinterest with plenty designed to involve children but none right for us. It's a bit different since it's a pre-filled organiser but hopefully it will be useful as a starting point if anyone else is interested. You can download this here or below.

Next week is the last in our Getting Organised series (for now) and will look at organisation in the studio!

Getting Organised Part 1

Happy new year! Ironically, this post is later than planned due to disorganisation for the first week or so of January... but hopefully we'll keep on top of things now thanks to our Getting Organised series this month. Before reopening the online shop after our Christmas break we went into full planning mode including a studio clear out, new stock take method, home organisation, a labelling frenzy and designing pretty, yet practical, printables.

This is our new weekly planner - it's perfect for us as some days are full lists and we want a blank column and other days we can add doodles and note bubbles as there are no restricting lines or time slots. The reason we chose not to include the weekend is that this planner goes up on the studio wall where we're trying to keep away from at weekends to make sure we get time off (which was an issue we had in 2014). Plus weekends are a time for relaxing and taking a break from lists!

If you'd like a copy of this planner you can download it for free as a pdf here. It's A4 size and perfect for printing off for busier weeks! We'd love to hear if you find it useful. Next week we'll be sharing some home organisers.