A lot of people have blogged about what an ideal day for them is like, but since I’ve been self employed I can’t really say that many of my days are exactly the same as the others! I have so many different hats to wear (photographer, editor, blogger, bookkeeper, accountant, marketing executive, customer service, etc) that sometimes it doesn’t make sense for me to do a little bit of everything every day. Instead I prefer to look at my work a week in advance and schedule my “ideal week” out. This means instead of stepping in and out of one project to another, I complete one, then move to another. Of course every week won’t be the same…some weeks we have Friday weddings or sessions or rehearsal dinners to shoot. Other weeks I have appointments out of the office, or travel. And during off season, all bets are off and structured work times go out the window.

But in general, My ideal week looks something like this:

Monday: Cull and sort Saturday’s wedding. Edit wedding. That’s pretty much my whole day. It shouldn’t take me more than 6 hours to hammer out an entire wedding…and I’m working on getting that amount of time shorter and shorter. Hopefully with a new computer this will go even faster!
Tuesday: Office work day. Meaning album design, pre blogging, bookkeeping, accounting, etc. All of that fun stuff:)
Wednesday: Marry and Bright day. I use this time to go through submissions and approve and deny them, answer emails that pertain to me and my responsibilities, any bookkeeping, blog maintenance, etc.
Thursday: Office errands, packaging client gifts, post office, etc
Friday: Day off! Rest up for wedding the next day and prepare by recharging batteries, packing bag, cleaning glass. And then recharging MY batteries by enjoying a little bit of time off from the business.
Saturday: Shoot a wedding! Boom.
Sunday: day off…or travel home from wedding.

Obviously I handle emails, social media, and sending invoices, contracts, etc on a daily basis, but for me, structuring  my weeks this way has worked really well. It’s something I started back when I was working full time and running my business full time on the side as well…it gave me so much more structure and helped me be more productive! Within any of those workdays, I try to be in my office around 9 am or so and work until 4:30 or 5pm. But sometimes I start earlier or later and finish up earlier or later depending on what’s going on. I try to give myself a little lee-way too as long as my work is getting done, because hey, being self employed has it’s perks:) Sometimes that means watching netflix while I edit…and sometimes that means answering emails on my laptop in bed in the morning! #selfemploymentperks

Anyone else out there in internet-land prefer to schedule week to week instead of day by day? Also, I’m so excited to share a fun wedding with you all soon, here’s a peek at what’s to come!