Three things you should think about when you run a business with a creative mind

When I started working fulltime in my business in October 2010 my days were just like I imagined them: I got up and changed into sweat pants and a comfy jumper, I made coffee and somewhere I started working – checking Facebook first of course as that was now allowed officially. I worked creatively on the things I liked doing most and took the afternoons to watch inspiring TED talks or online workshops. It was a wonderful time, I felt free and independent and oh so girlbossy. And then…. I started not picking up the phone, not answering inconvenient emails, not doing my accounting, not writing my blog, not doing the things that I maybe didn’t like as much as watching those workshops and working on my creativity. Well let’s face it: Being your own boss is great but without any structure and with the curse of procrastination and a creative heart it can be over pretty quickly. I know this is hard to hear and for all of you out there just sitting there in their sweat pants working creatively and pushing all those naughty to-dos on the „tomorrow“ list please realize that this is not how you will succeed. So here are my three steps for you to still like being your own boss, work creatively AND getting stuff done.

1. A list

Write down what needs to be done this week and sort it by priority (not by most liked, most hated).

2. A structure

For me it works best to do the most important things in the morning as the first thing. Having done the most important things before lunch doesn’t only make me feel strong and great because I got things done, it also gives me space to work on creative stuff in the afternoon without feeling guilty that I should work on other to-dos.

3. Business has always priority

There will be some days where you drown in your to-do list. Make sure that running your business, serving your clients, processing your orders, answering your emails has always the highest priority even if there wont be much of creativity time. There will be other days to be creative again!