by Joey | May 14, 2018 | Creative Entrepreneur
Working from home always sounded like the dream. And trust me, it definitely can be. But there were some things I didn’t consider before blending my work life with my home life. And in the last two years, I’ve found some things that work and some that don’t. And as I’m cruising into this work week battling a nasty sinus infection, I figured this would be a good time to share with you my old faithfuls when it comes to finding productivity while working from home.
Things that help me stay productive while working from home.
I set an alarm.
I know. I know. This isn’t a must-do for everyone, but it is for me. My morning hours are my most productive. If I don’t get up early, carry out my morning routine, and sit down at my computer before 8 AM, I feel like I’ve lost the day. It also helps for me to separate work days from weekends. Structure is my friend if you haven’t already picked up on that.
I work in my office.
On weeks like this one where I’m feeling completely under the weather, it’s really tempting for me to take things to the couch or to the bed. But I try to keep some separation. If I’m feeling sick enough that I need to go lay in bed, the work shouldn’t follow. So I treat my work like a real job (because, uhm, it is). I go into my office and work. I don’t eat my breakfast or lunch at my desk. And I physically walk out of my office when I’m not working.
I leave my phone in another room.
I don’t bring my phone into my office whenever I can help it. Because is that thing really even a phone? No, it’s a brick of distraction. I can receive important text messages on my computer, and if that phone is in my office, I’ll find myself scrolling socials. That’s not productive. At least not for me.
I take [coffee] breaks.
If you worked in an office, chances are you’d stop what you’re working on for a moment to catch up with a coworker. Maybe you’d grab a coffee in the break room or take a quick stroll outside. I try to employ intentional breaks. Calendar blocking helps with this.
I calendar block.
I take the time to create a to do list, and then I plan out my week accordingly. Calendar blocking helps me combat the overwhelm, and it helps me keep structure in my days. I don’t think it really matters how much of a self-starter you are if you don’t know what you’re supposed to be doing with your time. Calendar blocking helps me stay on task and introduce balance into my day.
I wear one hat at a time.
This one is hard. Trust me. It’s really hard to stay focused on work when there’s laundry piled up in the master bedroom. But I do my best to treat my office like an out-of-the-house office. I don’t do the laundry when I should be working. Now, that doesn’t mean I won’t throw a load in on a [scheduled] break, but it is not my priority. Working during working hours is my priority. It’s a little harder when the dog or cat demand my attention (they’re awfully dramatic, I have no idea where they get that from 🙃), but I do my best to keep my home life out of my work life and vice versa.
I have a few actual products and some software that also help me when it comes to working from home. Would you guys be interested in seeing a post featuring those things? Let me know. What’s something you do to help you stay on task when working from home?
by Joey | May 10, 2018 | Creative Entrepreneur, How I Work Series
Hey y’all! I’m Ashley Shelly Trotier. I am a graphic designer, product photographer, and owner of the brand Ashley Shelly (my maiden name). I design and sell planners and notebooks for my brand, and I just love it! It is my true passion. Two of my most popular products are the Ashley Shelly Planner and the Budget Notebook. I am an ISTJ personality, so I enjoy working alone as an introvert, but I’m also not that shy, so I enjoy chatting with others too. Relationships are so important to me and life is truly about the memories we build with our family and friends, in my opinion.
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How I Work
I work daily from my home office, which I call the AS Home Studio. I’m living my dream every day and that is so amazing to me! I’ve been working from home full-time for about 3 years now, after leaving my corporate creative director position in April of 2015. My home studio is very organized, haha. Fitting for a planner girl, right? I thrive in a clean, orderly surrounding, and it’s one of my biggest priorities to keep my workspace nice and neat. My mind does not handle clutter very well, but luckily I enjoy the process of cleaning and organizing. I love cool colors, so I am surrounded by lots of white, cool gray, aqua, purple, and navy. Those are mostly my brand colors, and it’s so much fun to see them around me!
For daily organization of my business tasks and to-do lists, I use my weekly Ashley Shelly Planner. I created it to be a perfect combo of handling my business and personal life, so everything runs smoothly day-to-day. I have one side of the day laid out for appointments, and the other is a to-do list. I love checking things off! Super satisfying for this type-A personality. If anything doesn’t get checked off for the day, it gets moved to the next day so it doesn’t get forgotten. Even with all of the digital apps and things out there today to track productivity, I still get the most done by writing things down physically on paper. I doubt that is going to change for me.
During an average work day, I typically check emails and respond to anything quick, or star the ones that require a longer response for later in the day. I check in on my Instagram and Facebook accounts, respond to any comments or DMs I’ve received from the previous evening, and usually post a new product image or share a behind-the-scenes sneak peek or story. More recently, I’ve been designing the 2019 line of planners to send to the printer and I’m now waiting on the physical proofs to come in. I always, always get physical proofs of any product I design. That way, I can see it exactly how it will look and make any necessary changes before large numbers get produced. The actual design and proofing process of paper products is probably my favorite aspect of my job. Choosing color palettes and creating new patterns is just way too fun!
Around 1-2PM, I go into my online shop’s order management system and pack up the orders waiting to be shipped. I love packing everything myself right now. One day I might not be able to do it all, so for now, I enjoy taking care of the little details as my company grows. It’s a very special thing for me to put my hands on every order that goes out and thank that person in my mind as well as on social media, as their order gets sent out. I truly believe in putting positive energy out into the world, and I think it matters to be grateful for every sale I make.
Mid-day I always stop for a lunch break. I take my health seriously and definitely enjoy a hearty lunch while catching up on YouTube videos from my favorite channels. It’s a great way to break up the day for me, and I really look forward to that no-rush lunch. After that, I check in on email again, and respond to the starred emails that I saved from the morning. I can definitely focus more after a food break! Haha.
After emails have been taken care of, I work on any design files that need to be continued or finished, or photograph products for my website or social media channels. I do all of my own design work and product photography, so that typically takes up the end of my afternoons. Then, I tidy up my work area to create a great environment for the next day.
I truly feel blessed to live the life I am living right now, as the owner and designer of the Ashley Shelly brand. I never thought as a younger person in high school or college that I’d be right here. I always saw myself working for someone else, but I wouldn’t trade how things ended up. I started creating my products on the side while working full-time. The Budget Notebook was my very first business baby. I made it to help myself keep track of my finances in my mid-twenties, but quickly realized how helpful it would be for other women just like me, who felt overwhelmed in that area. From there, I kept adding products to my line that would truly help women stay organized and live their best days. Each day is a blessing, and I think it should be lived without too much stress. Sometimes we go through stressful times no matter what we try to do to prevent it, but there are ways to get through those moments and enjoy our days even in those times. Every product I make is meant to help create that mindset.
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Habits and Routines
My mornings are very relaxed. I have never been a fan of jumping out of bed in a hurry and rushing around. That thought alone makes my stomach hurt, actually. I am a super night owl and always have been, so I sleep in usually until I feel like my body and mind are refreshed. Being able to set my own schedule is probably the best thing that ever happened to me in this case. I get up about 11AM and have breakfast right away, usually cereal, nothing too sweet though, and watch a little YouTube. Watching the news or TV first thing just depresses me, bleh. I prefer to control what comes into my mind that early. Positive people I subscribe to on YouTube are a much happier way to start my day! I enjoy watching channels like Mimi or Alex Ikonn, Alex and Michael, Franceska Garza, The SacconeJolys, Pretty Neat Living, and a few others. If I want a motivating kick in the butt, I watch Gary Vaynerchuk. And as far as my commute, it’s pretty short, from my bedroom to my office down the hall.
For rituals around my work, I am constantly referring to my planner throughout the day, checking things off as I go. I usually have a YouTube video playing in the background to keep me company, as I work alone, or I listen to a podcast. Some of my favorite business podcasts right now are A Podcast for Creatives, She Did It Her Way, How I Built This, Hack the Entrepreneur, and The Product Boss Podcast. There are some amazing podcasts out there filled with people who are sharing their lives and inspiring others!
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Life Balance
My husband gets home from his job around 6PM. We sit and chat for a bit about our days, and then decide on what to do for dinner. Since we both work, we make that choice together, to either go out for dinner or have something at home. Dinner time with him is special each day and I really enjoy that quality time to just focus on each other.
After dinner, we usually will go walk through a store and look for home décor pieces as we just moved into a new condo, or we’ll come home and relax on the couch with a comedy special on Netflix. Some of my favorite shows lately have been The Bachelor (of course), The Ranch, Fuller House, or Shark Tank. We love the neighborhood we just moved to, so I see a lot of sidewalk strolls in the near future as well. I’m also going to be setting up our balcony to be a cozy relaxation area for us. So far it has two rocking chairs. It just needs an outdoor rug, some string lights and outdoor curtains and it’ll be a special place to chill in the evenings. I love to make a comfort food snack late at night, like a yogurt parfait, or sometimes just a nice cup of hot chamomile tea with honey and cinnamon in it. I also balance that out some nights with Sour Patch Kids or gummy worms! I enjoy my evenings.
When we get ready to go to bed, I bring my planner with me and put it on my nightstand. I check over the tasks for the next day, add anything that needs to be done, and make a mental plan for the day ahead. After I do that, I feel like I can let go and completely relax because I have a plan. That’s just how my mind works. I thrive on routines and being prepared. I know in life there will be lots of moments that I will just have to wing it, but I much prefer to think things through when I have time to.
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Thank you so much, Ashley, for hanging out with us today!
Be sure to give her some love! Her content is inspiring and calm-inducing (and man, couldn’t we all use a little bit more of that in our lives?) I came to know Ashley when I discovered her planner online and purchased one for myself! To say I’m obsessed would be an epic understatement. Do yourself a favor and peruse her shop–you’re sure to fall in love. You can keep up with all the cool things Ashley is doing on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Youtube.
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by Joey | May 8, 2018 | Devotional Series
Then the Lord said to Elijah, ‘Go east and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. The Kerith brook will give you fresh water to drink and I’ve commanded ravens to bring you food there every day.’ So Elijah obeyed what the Lord said to do. He moved to the Kerith Ravine and lived there. The birds brought him food each morning and evening and he drank from the brook. But after a while, the brook dried up because there was no rain.
1 Kings 17:2-7
Has God ever made you a promise, you obeyed, and then suddenly everything he promised you seems to be disappearing? Yeah, been there. In fact, I’ve been there a few times. But my most intimate experience with the brook drying up happened back in December of 2014. But first, you need a little backstory.
You see, my husband and I had made a nice little life for ourselves in Charlotte, NC. We both had good jobs, we were living in a great house that we were considering buying, and Life Seemed Grand. But then, suddenly, everything changed with one phone call.
Football has always been A Big Deal in the Hodges house. Shortly after we said I Do, my husband was set to graduate from UGA with his Master’s in Sports Administration. But first, he needed an internship. When every plan we had in place fell through, his last-minute scramble resulted in an internship that would ultimately change the course our lives. We up and moved on a week’s notice from Athens, GA and we soon settled into our new home in Charlotte. Jonathan was working by day and volunteering as a positions coach for JCSU by night. A passion so deep he did it for free. For years.
But one fateful Tuesday afternoon in 2012, Jonathan got a call that would change our lives. The football coaching dream now a reality, we left our big life in Charlotte for a little NC town. Everything Seemed Perfect. The job supported us both. We were offered a darling little country house for next to nothing. And the school provided pretty much everything we ever needed.
Until that gloomy December morning in 2014 when the brook dried up. As it happens with football, my husband’s contract wasn’t renewed. Our whole lives depended on that job. Everything we had. Everything we needed. All of it. Just like that, gone.
I’ll tell you this, there isn’t a fear more real than losing everything. I’ve always been a believer, but it wasn’t ever in my nature to rely first on God. It just wasn’t. But when I opened the door that December morning to find my husband, eyes rimmed red, I knew I couldn’t get through that season of our lives on my own. So, I handed it over to God. A few weeks later, still thick in the unknown, I started to listen to the Rick Warren Daily Hope podcast. And the very first episode I listened to was all about the brook drying up.
You want to talk about the power of a timely message, there it was. As I walked around a campus that was no longer going to be my home, my safe haven, Rick Warren shared his insights.
God often dries up the brook in your life to keep you from depending on the brook instead of him, to move you to a better place, to prove he has not forgotten you.
Years later, looking back, I understand now. Our lives changed radically because of that loss. We moved. I went back to work full-time. We found our way back to church, God now at the center of our lives. If it weren’t for that loss, I can’t be certain I would have ever started my own company. If it weren’t for that loss, I can’t be sure we’d have the lives we have now.
It doesn’t take the sting of the pain out of the moment, but the brook drying up was ultimately the best thing that could have ever happened to us. It changed us. It changed our marriage. It changed our relationship with Christ.
It’s hard to hold onto hope when things feel hopeless. Trust me, I know. But I promise you that God is using the things that are causing you so much pain right now to move you, to change you, to build a path to a better life.
by Joey | May 7, 2018 | Creative Entrepreneur
Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been in the creative entrepreneur world for a while, confidence seems to be a word that crops up in daily conversation. Over the weekend, I sat across from a friend who is a brilliant artist chatting about all things business. We discussed creating strategic offerings, pricing, creative partnerships, you name it. And finally, after a while, she asked me a question. How come you don’t have any doubts?
I couldn’t help but laugh because internally, I have doubts daily. I think that’s just a a regular part of doing anything creative. When I first wrote Yeah, maybe, I did it as a challenge for myself. I didn’t care so much about what happened after, I just wanted to see if I could do it. Making the choice to do something Big and Scary is hard enough.
But when you decide to put that creative project that you’ve worked on, whether it’s a book or a painting or an e-course or even a creative service out into the world in exchange for money, I think it’s natural for doubt to fall over you like a warm blanket. Doubt and fear are good friends of the unknown. And when the work that you do is so tethered to your heart, it’s hard not to worry about the what ifs.
What if someone thinks I’m charging too much?
What if they think it’s crap?
What if they think I’m crap?
What if I’m not actually any good?
What if I put in all this work and no one buys it?
I think where the disconnect happens is that people put a lot of stock in their first stab at something. The first price you set for your creative business will not be the last. The first draft you write of a novel will not be what you publish. You’re allowed to try and make mistakes and readjust as you see fit. But you have to start somewhere. You have to try, collect the data, regroup, and try again if necessary.
While I wish I could wave a magic wand and gift you with confidence, I can’t. But what I can do is possibly change your perspective on confidence. For me, I am confident I’ll eventually figure it out. I’m committed to this journey, whatever that entails. (And trust, it’s been a hard, heartbreaking, terrifying, and sometimes downright messy road.) But I have confidence in myself to know I’ll keep trying until I get it right.
I’m a firm believer that confidence comes from the doing. Our minds are scary, scary places y’all. And when we let them, our thoughts of doom and gloom can take on a life of their own, making Everything seem bigger than it really is. But if you’re busy doing, your mind is focused on tangible information and can’t just wander off into its own, terrifying world.
So whatever it is that has you feeling unconfident right now; whether that’s setting your pricing or starting that blog, or writing that book, have confidence that eventually, you’ll get it right. And give yourself permission to mess up.
And as for the fear of what others might think, I’m just going to be painfully blunt here. It’s easy to have opinions, it’s harder to do the work. Keep your head down and just worry about the work that you’re doing. Put your best into it, and good things will come. You cannot and will not make everyone happy. But focus on the good, take nuggets of information from the constructively critical, and leave the rest.
If you’re knee deep in the struggle and need tangible, action-based help, get in touch. I have creative business consulting and coaching sessions available.
by Joey | May 4, 2018 | Advice
It happens to the best of us. There’s a task or project looming that you just. don’t. want. to. do. Yup, been there. Avoided that. But one way or another, the task has to get done. So what do you do? How are you supposed to stop procrastinating? Well, I’ve gotcha covered. Let’s get to it, shall we?
Identify the pushback; why are you resisting?
First things first, you have to figure out why it is that you just can’t bring yourself to get this task done. Sometimes it’s just because you’ve labeled it something you should do when really, it’s not actually important. Or maybe you said yes to something to make someone else happy, and now you’re having a hard time getting it done because you don’t actually want to do it.
Identifying your common reasons for pushback can be a great place to start in order to make sure you don’t continue to end up in this cycle of procrastination and unproductivity. Maybe make a note for yourself that in the future you’ll outsource this particular task or, you know, avoid people pleasing in the future.
Estimate out how much time it’s going to take
This tip is two-fold. 1) When working with a deadline, this allows for you to realistically schedule out (and breakdown) the task by reverse engineering it. 2) Sometimes the amount of time we spend worrying/thinking/avoiding the task isn’t worth the time it would take to get the task done. A great example here would be how often I avoid emptying the dishwasher. I can literally unload that sucker in 3 minutes flat. But I can spend countless hours avoiding it/thinking about it/worrying about it. Not worth it.
And you all know what I’m going to say next I’m sure, unless you’re new here. And if so–hi. Schedule this task into your calendar with the appropriate allotted time.
Take your task appointments seriously
You wouldn’t let down a colleague or a good friend by not taking their calendar appointment seriously. So why would you consider letting yourself down in the same way? You’re only hurting yourself if you ignore the appointments that you carefully scheduled out for yourself to foster your productivity. Show up to the appointment like you would anything else. Be prepared and in the right mindset to work. If this is a task that you’ve allotted a specific amount of time for, respect the end time as well. If you end up needing more time later, schedule it.
Now, if this has to get rescheduled for any reason–treat it like you would any other appointment and reschedule it. But be mindful that every time this happens, you’re procrastinating on some level. It means you’re prioritizing something else over this task. So if the task is truly important, try to avoid this as much as possible.
Turn off distractions
Remember, you’re committed to getting this thing done. You’ve taken the time to plan it out, schedule it, and now it’s time to show up. Do yourself a favor and cut the noise. Put your phone on DND. Turn off your notifications on your computer (hey mac users–you can actually set your computer to DND for a period of time by selecting the little taskbar on the very top right, scrolling all the way up, and toggling DND to the on position. You’re welcome. :))
Set a timer to get started
This is my most favorite tried & true tip of all. Want to hear a little secret? Often times the reason we’re procrastinating is because we don’t know where to start. Well, if you set a timer (the amount of time is arbitrary, but I typically start with 15 minutes) and just get started, many times you’ll feel like you can keep going once the timer runs out.
Something else to be mindful of is that sometimes procrastination creeps in when you’re feeling run down, burnt out, and/or exhausted. Take a good hard look at your calendar and determine if instead of wasting the time procrastinating, you can afford to give yourself some intentional rest and get to the task at a future scheduled time.
What are some of your tricks to stop procrastinating
