Every Monday morning, I start with a blank sheet and write the days of the week across the top. Then, I fill in the blocks with what I call my anchors—1:1 sessions, appointments, weekly creative commitments, and the priority things I need to accomplish, like sending a proposal or prepping for a shoot or workshop.

At the bottom, I keep running lists of open loops, bigger strategy projects and ideas, weekly operational tasks, random to-dos, and monthly responsibilities like QuickBooks and cleaning out my camera roll.

I love that it’s all somewhere other than swirling around in my head, pressuring me to be productive. It’s handwritten in pencil so I can change my mind and move things around as the week unfolds. And yup, the tradeoffs are right there in front of me, too, helping me make solid decisions.

But the best part? Getting everything down on paper has really helped me feel more like the CEO.

By Friday, it’s a mess of checkmarks, crossed-out tasks, and circled things to roll into the following week. The goal isn’t necessarily to finish everything, but to have a clear picture of everything I’m holding and seeing how much I can realistically fit into a week.

I think most of us crave a weekly rhythm. But the irony of landing on something as simple as a piece of paper is that it only became easy once I understood all the moving parts. And there was no skipping the messy middle to get there.

What I Hadn’t Been Accounting For

Over the years, I’ve kept a running inventory of everything my business requires and how long things actually take (because, well, they always take longer than we think). It’s a big part of understanding whether the business model actually works.

Is a $2,500 workshop actually worth it if it takes 40 hours between ideating, structuring, building, practicing, delivering, and recovering on the couch the day after? Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t.

For years, I’ve been excellent at keeping up with the operational side of my businesses. I know how to keep the show moving.

But as I build this hybrid creative business—a mix of content creation, retail, and services—I’ve realized there was an entire side I hadn’t been prioritizing. I thought it was because I didn’t have time, but really, I didn’t know how to approach it yet.

The strategy work. The thinking. The exploring. The perspective behind it all.

I had to teach myself how to feel comfortable regularly settling into 2–3 hour creative blocks when there were emails to answer and opportunities to generate. And how to build the emotional resilience to navigate something new.

It took closing my shop for a bit to give myself the space to figure it out. That’s how I learn best.

Writing consistently has helped me better understand my own thoughts and creative process. There’s the research and exploration, the sharpening of an idea, then the editing, refining, and polishing that bring it to life.

This is something I explore with my coaching clients often, too. Because making room for the work that matters isn’t always as simple as “just doing it”.

We have to start by looking at the business as a whole. What does it actually take to deliver the work? What needs to happen every day, week, every month, every quarter? How much time, attention, and energy does it all require? And how does that compare with the capacity available?

Because sometimes we’re trying to fit 50 hours of work into a 30-hour week, and no piece of paper in the world is going to solve that!

I’ve found it helpful to organize the work of running a creative business into five areas:

1. Admin & Operations

   • Managing the everyday responsibilities, finances, schedules, systems, and tools that keep the business running.

2. Creative Exploration & Ideation

   • Research, exploration, inspiration, experimentation, and developing your perspective without needing an immediate outcome.

3. Business Strategy & Content Creation

   • Developing offers, planning, positioning, messaging, writing, and creating the content that communicates your ideas.

4. Projects, Delivery & Revenue Generation

   • Executing projects, delivering client services, sourcing and selling products, fulfilling paid partnerships, and generating revenue.

5. Networking & Outreach

   • Building relationships, attending events, pitching, following up, and generating future opportunities.

Right now, I’m spending nearly half my time on strategy and creative exploration as I continue building this next chapter of my business. But eventually, I’d love to shift more of that time toward delivering all the work I’ve been developing!

Of course, how much attention each area requires depends on your business model, your stage of growth, and what you’re working toward. But seeing everything together makes it easier to see the big picture.

Oh, the central tension of entrepreneurship! Balancing where we are with where we want to be, without losing sight of the vision.

Because the work that needs our attention today isn’t always the same work that creates opportunities for tomorrow. And by the time we’ve answered the day’s emails, delivered the client work, managed the finances, and kept everything moving, there isn’t always much left in the tank to think about what’s next.

I’ve realized that making room for the work I love requires more than finding time in my calendar. It’s about understanding what I have the capacity to take on, how I pace myself, and what I choose to prioritize.

So now, alongside my fixed commitments, I’ve made the recurring work that fuels me and the business an anchor in my week, too.

For me, that’s writing my weekly Substack, sourcing, photographing and listing new vintage arrivals, and creating about two Instagram posts per week.

They’re foundational parts of how I develop and share my perspective, connect with people, and create opportunities for the business. And I love doing them! They give me energy.

I’ve also found it helpful to give certain activities a recurring home.

Mondays, I don’t take clients and focus on creative work for the shop. Thursdays are generally big coaching days. And Friday afternoons are when I take care of business operations, schedule my weekly shop email, and tie up loose ends.

The smaller tasks—administration, sharing and circulating my work, networking, and follow-ups—have their place, too. But I try to fit them around my bigger commitments rather than letting every incoming request or little thing that needs doing dictate my day.

And of course, I’m still experimenting. Some things take way longer than I expect. Sometimes I get absorbed in an idea and lose track of time. Sometimes I get stuck in my own thinking and need a nap, a walk, or a little quiet.

This is what the pencil is for!

I think it’s worth remembering why we started our businesses in the first place. Because a business can be successful, but are we actually fulfilled by the work we’re doing?

Of course, there will always be bills to pay, responsibilities to manage, and plenty of things that don’t go according to plan. But can we allow ourselves more room for the things we simply love doing too?

I want to write, discover beautiful things, share my curiosities, connect with like-minded people, and see where it all takes me. And I’m learning that the more room I make for those things, the more grounded I feel in the direction that I know is mine.

This is something I help my coaching clients navigate, too—making thoughtful decisions about where they want to spend their time and energy as their businesses evolve.

If this is something you’re navigating, I’d love to explore it with you! You can book a discovery call here anytime to see if working together might be a good fi